Systemic Inflammation Is Implicated in De Novo Seizures Following Meningioma Resection

Abstract AIMS To investigate the association between perioperative peripheral blood inflammatory markers and seizures in patients who have undergone meningioma resection. METHOD A single neurosurgery tertiary centre blood bank database was screened to extract pre-operative and post-operative white cell count (WCC), neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, platelets and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and derived NLR (dNLR). All patients who underwent resection of meningioma from 2012 to 2020 were eligible. Patients were excluded if they had an inflammatory condition, peri-operative infection, medical illness or operative complication. RESULTS 30 patients suffered pre-operative seizures only, 16 experienced de novo post-operative seizures within 1 year and 42 patients did not experience seizures throughout their treatment timeline. In those who had never had a seizure, there was a significant increase in WCC post-operatively (15.2 vs. 10.6 × 109/L (95% CI 2.1-8.2), p=0.02). Patients who suffered de novo seizures had a significantly higher post-operative day 1 to 4 WCC than those with no seizures (21.1 vs. 14.8 × 109/L (2.1-12.6), p=0.48). However, this difference of WCC was poorly predictive of de novo seizures at one year (AUC 0.61). There was no difference in pre-operative inflammatory markers between pre-operative seizure patients, de novo seizure or never seizure patients. CONCLUSION There is a significantly higher post-operative systemic inflammatory response in patients who suffered de novoseizures after meningioma resection. Peripheral blood markers have the potential to predict seizures in patients with meningioma.