Systematic Review of Incidence Studies of Pneumonia in Persons with Spinal Cord Injury

Raab, Anja Maria; Mueller, Gabi; Elsig, Simone; Gandevia, Simon C.; Zwahlen, Marcel-David; Hopman, Maria T. E.; Hilfiker, Roger (2021). Systematic Review of Incidence Studies of Pneumonia in Persons with Spinal Cord Injury Journal of clinical medicine, 11(1), pp. 211-229. MDPI 10.3390/jcm11010211

Preview

Text 2021_Raab et al_JClinMed_Systematic Review of Incidence Studies of Pneumonia in Persons with Spinal Cord Injury.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY). Download (5MB) | Preview

Pneumonia continues to complicate the course of spinal cord injury (SCI). Currently, clinicians and policy-makers are faced with only limited numbers of pneumonia incidence in the literature. A systematic review of the literature was undertaken to provide an objective synthesis of the evidence about the incidence of pneumonia in persons with SCI. Incidence was calculated per 100 person-days, and meta-regression was used to evaluate the influence of the clinical setting, the level of injury, the use of mechanical ventilation, the presence of tracheostomy, and dysphagia. For the meta-regression we included 19 studies. The incidence ranged from 0.03 to 7.21 patients with pneumonia per 100 days. The main finding of this review is that we found large heterogeneity in the reporting of the incidence, and we therefore should be cautious with interpreting the results. In the multivariable meta-regression, the incidence rate ratios showed very wide confidence intervals, which does not allow a clear conclusion concerning the risk of pneumonia in the different stages after a SCI. Large longitudinal studies with a standardized reporting on risk factors, pneumonia, and detailed time under observation are needed. Nevertheless, this review showed that pneumonia is still a clinically relevant complication and pneumonia prevention should focus on the ICU setting and patients with complete tetraplegia.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	School of Health Professions > Academic-Practice-Partnership Insel Gruppe/BFH
Name:	Raab, Anja Maria; Mueller, Gabi; Elsig, Simone; Gandevia, Simon C.; Zwahlen, Marcel-David; Hopman, Maria T. E. and Hilfiker, Roger
Subjects:	R Medicine > RZ Other systems of medicine
ISSN:	2077-0383
Publisher:	MDPI
Language:	English
Submitter:	Anja Raab
Date Deposited:	25 Jan 2022 15:06
Last Modified:	25 Jan 2022 15:06
Publisher DOI:	10.3390/jcm11010211
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.16447
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/16447