{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,16]],"date-time":"2026-07-16T18:52:29Z","timestamp":1784227949845,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]],"date-time":"2026-05-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1778198400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Microorganisms"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are clinically relevant complications in critically ill stroke patients, particularly in neurological intensive care settings, where severe neurological injury, dysphagia, immobilization, invasive device exposure, and prolonged hospitalization increase infection susceptibility. Romanian data focused on deceased stroke patients admitted to neurological intensive care units remain limited. This retrospective descriptive single-center hospital-based study, supported by focused literature contextualization, was conducted in the Neurological Intensive Care Unit of the Bra\u0219ov County Emergency Clinical Hospital, Romania. Adult stroke patients who died during hospitalization over a six-year observation period were included. Clinical data were extracted from a working hospital database and analyzed descriptively after data cleaning and harmonization. The final cohort comprised 190 deceased stroke patients; ischemic stroke was documented in 69.5% and hemorrhagic stroke in 28.9%. Hypertension (73.7%) and ischemic heart disease and\/or previous myocardial infarction (60.0%) were the most frequently recorded comorbidities. Pneumonia was the dominant documented infectious complication, recorded in 52.6% of patients, followed by urinary tract infection (11.6%), pressure sore-related infection (4.7%), and sepsis-related coding (6.8%). The median in-hospital survival interval was 6 days (IQR 3.0\u201310.75). Because year-by-year stratification was not sufficiently robust, the temporal component was interpreted only in aggregate form. These findings provide a descriptive hospital-based profile of documented infectious complications in a fatal stroke ICU cohort and support the need for more standardized infection documentation and better linkage between clinical and microbiological data in neurocritical care settings.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/microorganisms14051062","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]],"date-time":"2026-05-11T20:14:16Z","timestamp":1778530456000},"page":"1062","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Healthcare-Associated Infections in Deceased Stroke Patients in a Romanian Neurological ICU: A Retrospective Descriptive Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Simona Ioana Adriana","family":"Mlendea (G\u0103lbineanu)","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Bra\u0219ov County Emergency Clinical Hospital, 500326 Bra\u0219ov, Romania"},{"name":"Doctoral School in Medicine, \u201cTransilvania\u201d University of Bra\u0219ov, 500019 Bra\u0219ov, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4591-5039","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alin","family":"Kraft","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical-Surgical and Prophylactic Disciplines, Faculty of Medicine, Titu Maiorescu University of Bucharest, 031593 Bucharest, Romania"},{"name":"Department of General Surgery, \u201cGeneral Doctor Aviator Victor Anastasiu\u201d National Aeronautical and Space Medicine Institute, 010242 Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cristian","family":"Falup-Pecurariu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Bra\u0219ov County Emergency Clinical Hospital, 500326 Bra\u0219ov, Romania"},{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, \u201cTransilvania\u201d University of Bra\u0219ov, 500019 Bra\u0219ov, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tatiana Gianina","family":"Melicianu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Bra\u0219ov County Emergency Clinical Hospital, 500326 Bra\u0219ov, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lauren\u021biu D\u0103nu\u021b","family":"Nedelcu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Doctoral School in Medicine, \u201cTransilvania\u201d University of Bra\u0219ov, 500019 Bra\u0219ov, Romania"},{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, \u201cTransilvania\u201d University of Bra\u0219ov, 500019 Bra\u0219ov, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"GBD 2021 Causes of Death Collaborators (2024). 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