Risk of pneumonia associated with zero‐degree head positioning in acute ischemic stroke patients treated with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator

In the hyperacute phase of ischemic stroke, a 0° position is recommended to increase cerebral perfusion in nonhypoxic patients able to tolerate lying flat. However, use of 0° positioning is not uniformly applied in clinical practice, most likely due to concerns of aspiration pneumonia. We aimed to determine the risk of pneumonia associated with 0° head of bed positioning in acute stroke patients treated with thrombolytic therapy. Methods A retrospective descriptive study was conducted using prospectively collected, consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients treated with IV t PA whose head of bed was positioned at 0° for the first 24 h. Rates of hospital‐acquired pneumonia were determined using a strict adjudication process to insure accuracy of pneumonia diagnoses. Quantitative characteristics were analyzed in SPSS to compare differences between “true” pneumonia cases and nonpneumonia cases. Results Twenty‐four of 333 (7.2%) patients had mention the diagnosis of pneumonia in the registry and/or medical record. Of these cases, only 15 (4.5%) met evidence‐based diagnostic criteria for hospital‐acquired pneumonia. The 15 adjudicated cases had similar median admission NIHSS scores to nonpneumonia cases (10 vs. 9, respectively; P  = ns), but were older (74 ± 15 vs. 64 ± 17 years; mean difference 9.889, 95 CI  = 1.2–18.6; P  = 0.026). A total of eight patients with pneumonia were intubated and mechanically ventilated, and one patient received bilevel positive airway pressure ventilation during the 0° positioning period. Pneumonia cases had significantly longer hospitalizations (14.5 ± 12 vs. 6.6 ± 9 days; mean difference 7.97, 95% CI  = 1.1–14.8; P  = 0.026) and higher median discharge mRS score (4 vs. 3: P  = 0.003). Conclusions Zero‐degree head of bed positioning in the first 24 h following an acute ischemic stroke treated with IV ‐ tPA was associated with acceptable rates of pneumonia. Rates for pneumonia may be further reduced by eliminating use of a 0° protocol in intubated/mechanically ventilated patients.