Microbiological profile of patients who developed pneumonia following acute stroke

Abstract

Infections are frequent in patients with stroke and are often related to the clinical severity of the stroke and the subsequent immobilization. Post-stroke immunosuppression is likely to result from the sympathico-adrenal activation seen predominantly aft er severe stroke, and this may further contribute to the susceptibility of stroke patients to infections. By far the most frequent infections are urinary tract infections and pneumonia. The number of infections may be reduced by early mobilization and specific preventive measures. All selected patients were studied for post stroke pulmonary complications mainly pneumonia, mechanical ventilation, respiratory depression, its incidence, age, gender distribution and its association with the site of lesion, type of lesion, Severity of the stroke if measured by NIHSS scoring system. Study of microbiological profile among patients who developed pneumonia, growth was seen only in 19 patients among which klebsiella pneumonia seen in 7, acinetobacter in 4, CONS in 2, staphylococcus aureus in 2, candida sps in 3, enterobacter in 1 patients of our study.