What evidence is there that implementing oral hygiene protocols can reduce the risk of pneumonia after stroke?
A Cochrane review that included 3 studies found that oral care and decontamination gel versus oral care and placebo gel reduced the incidence of pneumonia in the intervention group (P=0.03).264 Wagner et al265 conducted a cohort study comparing rates of pneumonia in hospitalized stroke patients before and after implementation of systematic oral hygiene care. The unadjusted incidence of hospital-acquired pneumonia was lower in the group assigned to oral hygiene care compared with control subjects (14% versus 10.33%; P=0.022), with an unadjusted OR of 0.68 (95% CI, 0.48 0.95; P=0.022).