Deans' stroke musings: Sleep Apnea Increases In-Hospital Pneumonia Risk After Acute Stroke

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Sleep Apnea Increases In-Hospital Pneumonia Risk After Acute Stroke

Part of the reason for my extreme fatigue post stroke was sleep apnea which my doctors never found. Once found, the CPAP machine was useless, couldn't sleep with the need to forcibly exhale against the incoming air. Have no clue if I still have sleep apnea, no partner to tell me otherwise, my fatigue has lessened considerably so I'm guessing my sleeping habits are now preventing the problem. Didn't get pneumonia.

Sleep Apnea Increases In-Hospital Pneumonia Risk After Acute Stroke

Preexisting sleep apnea is an independent predictor for acquiring in-hospital pneumonia following an acute stroke.

Inpatients with stroke and comorbid sleep apnea are at higher risk for acquiring pneumonia, according to study results presented at the International Stroke Conference (ISC), held from February 4 to 6, 2026, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

After acute stroke, patients are at risk for in-hospital pneumonia and those who develop pneumonia have longer hospital stays, worse outcomes, and higher mortality. The subset of patients with preexisting sleep apnea may be at increased risk for pneumonia due to higher risk for aspiration, hypoxia, and impaired airway clearance and due to the associated systemic inflammation.

To investigate the relationship between sleep apnea and poststroke pneumonia risk, investigators evaluated data from the Florida Stroke Registry. Patients (N=189,757) who were discharged after acute stroke between 2010 and 2025 were evaluated for in-hospital pneumonia on the basis of sleep apnea status.

Sleep apnea was a preexisting condition among 2.1% of patients.

Given the challenges of formal screening in acute care, efforts should focus on recognizing pre-existing sleep apnea and supporting adherence to therapies (eg, CPAP/BiPAP [continuous or bilevel positive airway pressure]) alongside standard pneumonia prevention protocols.

The rate of in-hospital pneumonia in the study population was 4.6%.

The in-hospital pneumonia rate was higher among patients with sleep apnea (7.9%) than among those without sleep apnea (4.5%).

The independent predictors for in-hospital pneumonia included sleep apnea (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.76; 95% CI, 1.55-2.00), higher stroke severity, subarachnoid or intracerebral hemorrhage relative to ischemic stroke, male gender, underweight body mass index (BMI), smoking, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and depression. Conversely, in-hospital pneumonia risk was lower with transient ischemic attack relative to ischemic stroke, Hispanic ethnicity compared with White race, and in patients with overweight or obese BMI.

The study investigators concluded, “In acute stroke care, sleep apnea independently predicts in-hospital pneumonia, likely due to aspiration risk, respiratory compromise, and systemic inflammation. Given the challenges of formal screening in acute care, efforts should focus on recognizing pre-existing sleep apnea and supporting adherence to therapies (eg, CPAP/BiPAP [continuous or bilevel positive airway pressure]) alongside standard pneumonia prevention protocols.”

This article originally appeared on The Cardiology Advisor