The incidence of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) increases with age and is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in older ages. Development of aspiration in these cases is one of the most important reasons to increase mortality. We retrospectively reviewed the data of sixty ninepatients over 65 years of age who were admitted with the diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia in order to determine the effects of aspiration risk factors on hospital stay and mortality. According to risk factors (neurological diseases, COPD, immobilization, cancer, etc.), cases were divided into two groups as high and low risk of aspiration. We aim to compared hospital stay and mortality in these groups. A total of sixty nine patients were included in this study. There were thirty patients in the group with high aspiration risk (group I) and thirty nine patients in the group with low aspiration risk (group II). CURB-65 scores were similar between the groups; however, pneumonia severity index was statistically higher in group II patients (p = 0.002). Mortality rates were significantly higher in group I (nine versus one) (p = 0.001). This was also valid for hospitalization times (11.7 ± 4.6 versus 8.4 ± 3.9 days, respectively) (p = 0.004). We found that the high risk of aspiration in advanced pneumonia cases was associated with prolonged hospital stay and increased mortality. At the same time there was a correlation between pneumonia severity index and hospital stay.
Key words: Aspiration, mortality, older age, pneumonia
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