Stroke; a journal of cerebral circulation
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Pneumonia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality after stroke. We aimed to determine key characteristics that would allow prediction of those patients who are at highest risk for poststroke pneumonia. ⋯ Pneumonia after stroke is associated with older age, dysarthria/no speech due to aphasia, severity of poststroke disability, cognitive impairment, and an abnormal water swallow test result. Simple assessment of these variables could be used to identify patients at high risk of developing pneumonia after stroke.
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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of new treatments by examining the changes between 1990 to 1991 and 2000 to 2001 in in-hospital mortality rates and hospital charges in adult patients with stroke. ⋯ There has been an increase in the inflation-adjusted hospital charges for all patients with stroke and a reduction in mortality rates for all stroke subtypes probably related to an increase in the proportion of patients with stroke admitted to urban teaching hospitals.