RESEARCH ARTICLE


Infection in Patients with Acute Stroke



S. P. Johnsen*, M. L. Svendsen, A. Ingeman
Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital, Olof Palmes Alle 43, DK-200 Aarhus N, Denmark.


Creative Commons License
© 2012 P. Johnsen et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Correspondence: * Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital, Olof Palmes Alle 43, DK-200 Aarhus N, Denmark.Tel: +45 871 68115; E-mail: spj@dce.au.dk, dda@dce.au.dk


Abstract

Stroke is a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide and efforts to reduce the impact of the disease are strongly needed. Patients with acute stroke have an increased risk of in-hospital complications, in particular pneumonia and urinary tract infections. These infections are associated with an adverse patient outcome and increased health care costs. Here we review the existing knowledge on the risk and consequences of post-stroke pneumonia and UTI in adult patients and discuss the evidence of possible targets for intervention.

Keywords: Stroke, infections, incidence.