Effect of early mobilization on the development of pneumonia in patients with traumatic brain injury in the neurosurgical intensive care unit: A historical controls study

Background Pneumonia has a high incidence in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients and lacks effective treatments. Early mobilization (EM) may be a potentially effective treatment. Aim To explore the impact of EM on TBI-related pneumonia in the neurosurgical intensive care unit (NICU). Method This study was a historical control study. 100 TBI patients who received EM intervention were prospectively included as the experimental group (EM cohort), and 250 TBI patients were retrospectively included as the control group. The propensity score matching (PSM) method was employed to balance baseline and minimize potential bias. The relationship between EM and TBI-related pneumonia was investigated by univariate and multivariate logistic regression, then further determined by subgroup analysis. The influence of other variables was excluded by interaction analyses. Finally, the effect of EM on the prognosis of TBI patients was analysed by comparing the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and the hospital stay. Results After screening, 86 patients were included in the EM cohort and 199 patients were included in the control cohort. There were obvious differences between the two cohorts at baseline, and these differences were eliminated after PSM, when the incidence of pneumonia was significantly lower in the EM cohort than in the control cohort (35.0% vs. 61.9%, p < .001). Multivariate logistic regression showed that EM was an independent risk factor for TBI-related pneumonia and was significantly associated with a decreased incidence of pneumonia. This correlation was present in most subgroups and was not affected by other variables (p for interaction >.05). Patients in the EM cohort had shorter length of ICU stay (6 vs. 7 days, p = .017) and higher GCS at discharge (12 vs. 11, p = .010). Conclusion EM is a safe and effective treatment for TBI patients in NICU, which can reduce the incidence of pneumonia, help to improve prognosis and shorten the length of ICU stay. Relevance to Clinical Practice Although the utilization rate of EM is low in TBI patients for various reasons, EM is still an effective method to prevent complications. Our study confirms that a scientific and detailed EM strategy can effectively reduce the incidence of pneumonia while ensuring the safety of TBI patients, which is worthy of further research and clinical application.