Methods: In this retrospective study, 51 patients (30 males, 21 females; median age 2 years; 1-3. quartiles 1.19 to 3.65 years) who underwent tetralogy of Fallot repair between August 2011 and October 2013 were included. The study population was divided into two groups: group 1 including patients without morbidity and group 2 including patients with morbidity.

Results: No mortality was observed in the study population. There was no significant difference in the median of preoperative neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio between the groups [0.87 (0.68-1.29) in group 1 vs. 0.75 (0.44-1.10) in group 2; p=0.094]. Vasoactive inotrope score, duration of intubation, and mediastinal drainage index were significantly higher in group 2 (p=0.014, p=0.001 and p=0.003, respectively). While preoperative and postoperative C-reactive protein were positively correlated with the corresponding neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (p<0.01, p<0.01, respectively), preoperative neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio was not correlated with postoperative C-reactive protein (p=0.701).

Conclusion: Our study results showed that preoperative neutrophillymphocyte ratio can be a good predictor of instantaneous inflammatory status, although there is no significant relationship between preoperative neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and morbidity after complete repair of tetralogy of Fallot.