What evidence is there on the efficacy of oral hygiene protocols in reducing the risk of pneumonia after stroke?
Studies have shown that implementing oral hygiene protocols to reduce the risk of pneumonia after stroke may be reasonable. A Cochrane review including 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).