Association between preoperative platelet and 30-day postoperative mortality of adult patients undergoing craniotomy for brain tumors: data from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database

Evidence regarding the relationship between preoperative platelet and 30-day postoperative mortality of intracranial tumor patients undergoing craniotomy is still limited. Therefore, the present research was conducted to explore the link of the platelet and 30-day postoperative mortality.

Electronic medical records of 18,642 adult patients undergoing craniotomy for brain tumors from 2012 to 2015 in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, were subject to secondary retrospective analysis. A binary logistic regression model evaluated the independent association between preoperative platelet and 30-day postoperative mortality. A generalized additive model and smooth curve fitting was conducted to explore the exact shape of the curve between them. Additionally, We also conducted sensitivity analyses to test the robustness of the results, and performed subgroup analyses.

Eighteen thousand sixty-three patients were included in this study analysis. Of these, 47.49% were male. The mean preoperative platelet value was (244.12 ± 76.77) × 10⁹/L. The 30-day postoperative mortality of included participants was 2.5% (452/18,063). After adjusting covariates, the results showed that preoperative platelet was positively associated with 30-day postoperative mortality (OR = 0.999, 95%CI: 0.997, 1.000). There was also a nonlinear relationship between preoperative platelet and 30-day postoperative mortality, and the inflection point of the platelet was 236. The effect sizes (OR) on the right and left sides of the inflection point were 1.002 (1.000, 1.004) and 0.993 (0.990, 0.995), respectively. And sensitive analysis demonstrated the robustness of the results. Subgroup analysis showed a stronger association between preoperative platelet and 30-day postoperative mortality in non-emergency surgery patients when preoperative platelet value is less than 235 × 10⁹/L.

This research demonstrates a positive and non-linear relationship between preoperative platelet and 30-day postoperative mortality in U.S. adult brain tumor patients undergoing craniotomy. Preoperative platelet is strongly related to 30-day postoperative mortality when the platelet is less than 235 × 10⁹/L. Proper preoperative management of platelet and maintenance of platelet near inflection point (235) could reduce risk of 30-day postoperative mortality in these cases.