Obesity and related diseases have become one of the most important health problems in the modern age. In addition to its clinical use in the treatment of obesity, bariatric surgery reduces obesity-induced inflammation. Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a cheap and easily attainable inflammatory marker. The purpose of this study is to show the effect of bariatric surgery on NLR at preoperative and postoperative 3rd, 6th, and 12th months after SG.
298 patients, who underwent sleeve gastrectomy (SG) in general surgery clinic between 2015 and 2017, were included in the study. We excluded the patients younger than 18 years old, and did not have any inflammatory, infectious, hematological, and comorbide diseases such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, ischemic heart disease, hypertension, renal insufficiency, cancer, and respiratory problems like asthma, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. We evaluated the levels of NLR at preoperative and postoperative 3rd, 6th, and 12th months visits.
There were a total of 298 adult patients (age: mean 38.6, minimum 18, maximum 69 years old). Of whom 247 were female (82.9%) and 51 were male (17.1%). We found that NLR levels decreased significantly at 3rd, 6th, and 12th month visits after SG (p<0.001).
We concluded that NLR levels decrease after surgery in a proportional reduction in adipose tissue. The decrease in NLR levels may also be associated with the protective effects of sleeve gastrectomy against low-grade inflammation-related diseases.

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.

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