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Stroke

Preventive antibiotics for stroke-associated pneumonia

Nature Reviews Neurology volume 11, pages 672–673 (2015)Cite this article

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Pneumonia impedes recovery from acute stroke and contributes to poor clinical outcomes. Two recent clinical trials demonstrate that antibiotics commonly used to treat stroke-associated pneumonia (SAP) neither reduce the frequency of pneumonia nor improve outcome after stroke when administered in a preventive manner. These findings necessitate fundamental reassessment of our current concepts of SAP.

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Acknowledgements

A.M. is supported by the German Research Foundation (grants Exc257, SFB-TRR84 and SFB-TRR43) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (01EO0801). C.J.S. receives funding from the Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, NeuroCure Clinical Research Center, Center for Stroke Research Berlin, Charité Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany

    Andreas Meisel

  2. Centre for Stroke and Vascular Research, Salford Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Stott Lane, Salford, M6 8HD, UK

    Craig J. Smith

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  1. Andreas Meisel
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Correspondence to Andreas Meisel.

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Competing interests

A.M. receives funding from Thermo Fisher Scientific, and also has patent EP1480646 issued for anti-infective agents and/or immunomodulators used for preventive therapy following an acute cerebrovascular accident. C.J.S. declares no competing interests.

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Meisel, A., Smith, C. Preventive antibiotics for stroke-associated pneumonia. Nat Rev Neurol 11, 672–673 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2015.220

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