Frequency Of Stroke Acquired Pneumonia in Patients Admitted in Intensive Care Unit with Stroke

Abstract

Stroke is a highly morbid entity, and it can be fatal directly due to neurological damage and affecting the respiratory system or can add to overall morbidity and mortality due to its associated complications like stroke-associated pneumonia (SAP). Objective: To investigate the prevalence of stroke-associated pneumonia in ICU patients. Methods: A descriptive case series was conducted at Faisalabad Medical University from October 2020 to April 2021.  In this study, the cases of either gender suffering from stroke within 12 hours were included. SAP was labelled on the basis of fever, cough, and non-homogenous opacities on chest X-ray. Results: In the present study, 160 cases of stroke were included, and out of these 82 (51.25%) were males and 78 (48.75%) females. The mean age of the subjects was 54.24±7.15 years and the mean duration of stroke was 7.05±2.54 hours. There were 35 (21.88%) cases that had DM, 28 (17.50%) had HTN and 30 (18.75%) of cases had a history of smoking. In 20 (12.50%) of the patients, SAP was discovered. With a p= 0.34, SAP was found in 12 (15.38%) female patients compared to 8 (9.75%) male cases. With a p= 0.15, SAP was more common in instances with DM, where it was detected in 7 (20%) of the cases compared to 13 (10.4%) in cases without DM. SAP was found in 5 (17.85%) instances of HTN and 4 (13.33%) cases of smoking history, with p values of 0.35 and 1.0, respectively. SAP was found in 15 (14.42%) patients with a stroke length of 6-12 hours, compared to 5 (8.92%) instances with a stroke duration shorter than this, with a p= 0.45. Conclusions: Stroke acquired pneumonia is not uncommon and is seen in more than 1 out of every 10 cases and it is more seen in females and those with a history of DM, HTN, and duration of stroke is 6 to 12 hours, though none of these variables was found statistically significant.