Abstract
Introduction The aim of the current study is to investigate the relationship between mortality rate in geriatric patients undergoing surgery with preoperative serum levels of procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Methods This was a single-center retrospective study, including three groups with 101 patients, who are older than 65 years of age. A retrospective investigation was carried out from the laboratory information system for all groups from January to December 2018. Group 1 included patients who had surgery and then mortality within 30 days after surgery. Group 2 included hospitalized patients who had surgery and no mortality within 30 days after surgery. Group 3 included outpatient patients, who had suspicion for a bacterial infection and then no surgery or no mortality within 30 days. Results When three group comparisons were made for procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate values, the p-value of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was higher than 0.05 for procalcitonin and lower than 0.05 for C-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate, suggesting that one or more groups were significantly different. When post-hoc multiple comparison methods were applied, there were statistically significant differences between Groups 1 and 3 for C-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Conclusions Procalcitonin levels do not predict mortality following surgery. C-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate are more useful biomarkers predicting mortality in geriatric patients undergoing surgery.