ReviewCureus2025
Diagnostic Accuracy of C-reactive Protein, Procalcitonin, White Blood Cell Count, and Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio in the Early Detection of Post-surgical Infections: A Systematic Review.
Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Risk factors and a diagnostic nomogram for early prediction of gram-positive coccal etiology in spontaneous spinal infection.Infection · 2026Article
- Perioperative immune trajectories in severe scoliosis surgery: a retrospective study of 2,736 patients undergoing corrective surgery for severe scoliosis.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Article
- Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio as a Prognostic Marker for Hospital-Acquired Infections in Neurosurgical Patients.Journal of inflammation research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Early detection of post-surgical infections is crucial for improving patient outcomes and reducing healthcare burdens. This systematic review evaluates the diagnostic accuracy of C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), white blood cell count (WBC), and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in identifying early post-surgical infections across various surgical specialties. A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Library following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, yielding eight high-quality studies, including meta-analyses, randomized controlled trials, and cohort studies. The findings indicate that CRP is the most extensively studied biomarker, with postoperative day (POD) 3-7 levels demonstrating moderate to high predictive value in abdominal, colorectal, spinal, and pancreatic surgeries. PCT was effective in guiding the management of adhesion-related small bowel obstruction, while NLR showed moderate diagnostic performance in orthopedic infections. Sensitivity and specificity varied across biomarkers and surgical types, with CRP showing the highest accuracy in spinal surgery (100% sensitivity and 96.8% specificity). Quality assessment using AMSTAR 2, ROB 2, QUADAS-2, and NOS tools revealed a moderate risk of bias in most studies due to heterogeneity in methodologies and biomarker cutoffs. The results support the integration of biomarker-based infection monitoring into perioperative protocols to optimize patient management, facilitate early discharge, and reduce unnecessary antibiotic use. Future research should focus on large-scale multicenter trials to establish standardized biomarker thresholds and explore the potential of combining multiple biomarkers with artificial intelligence-driven predictive models.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.