Abstract
Background and Purpose: Acute stroke patients complicated with pneumonia tend to have a poor functional prognosis. However, it is not known how complications with pneumonia influence the functional recovery in a stroke rehabilitation program. Therefore we aimed to clarify it in this study. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study on acute stroke patients complicated with pneumonia compared with acute stroke patients without pneumonia in their functional scores. A total of 47 acute stroke patients were enrolled and divided into two groups, acute stroke patients complicated with pneumonia (17 patients) and acute stroke patients without pneumonia (30 patients). Results: Clinical severities of both groups at admission in acute phase had statistically insignificant differences. The pneumonia group had a statistically significantly low average of serum albumin and inferior functional scores at both transfer to convalescent rehabilitation hospitals (SIAS scores: motor function in paralyzed side, function in non-paralyzed side, trunk function and FIM) and discharge from convalescent rehabilitation hospitals (same items as above plus FIM efficiency and improvement of dysphagia), compared with the non-pneumonia group. Conclusions: Acute stroke patients complicated with pneumonia tend to have a poor functional prognosis, which is mainly caused by reduced functional recovery in the acute phase with delay of rehabilitation program and disuse due to pneumonia. Moreover, these conditions inhibit functional recovery even in the convalescent rehabilitation phase, consequently leading to low FIM efficiency.
