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A Comparative Study Between Two Sensory Stimulation Strategies After Two Weeks Treatment on Older Patients with Oropharyngeal Dysphagia

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Abstract

Oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is a prevalent geriatric syndrome. Treatment is based on compensatory strategies to avoid complications. New treatments based on sensory stimulation to promote the recovery of the swallowing function have proved effective in acute studies but prolonged treatment needs further research. Our aim was to evaluate and compare the effect of two, longer-term sensory treatment strategies on older patients with OD. 38 older patients (≥70 years) were studied with videofluoroscopy (pre/posttreatment) and randomized into two 10-day treatment groups: Group A—transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) agonist (capsaicin 1 × 10−5 M) and Group B—transcutaneous sensory electrical stimulation (TSES) (Intelect VitalStim, biphasic pulses, 300 μs, 80 Hz). Patients were analyzed for treatment response. Patients were old (80.47 ± 5.2 years), with comorbidities (3.11 ± 1.59 Charlson Index), polymedication (8.92 ± 3.31 drugs/patient), and mild functional impairment (86.84 ± 17.84 Barthel Index), and 28.9 % were at risk of malnutrition (MNA-sf). Overall, all patients had videofluoroscopic signs of impaired safety of swallow (ISS) with delayed oropharyngeal swallow response (OSR). After sensory stimulation, prevalence of ISS decreased to 68.42 % in both groups (P = 0.019). There were 68.42 % responders in Group A (TRPV1) and 42.11 % in Group B (TSES). Group A responders showed an improvement in the penetration–aspiration scale (PAS, 5.23 ± 2.04 to 3 ± 1.47; P = 0.002), and the same was true for those of Group B (4.63 ± 1.41 to 2.13 ± 0.64; P = 0.007). 10-day sensory stimulation with either therapy improved safety of swallow and OSR in older patients with OD, reducing the severity of OD in a significant subgroup of these patients.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Mrs. Jane Lewis and Ailish Maher for reviewing the manuscript and to Mrs. Natàlia Vilardell for her help during the study.

Funding

This work has been supported by Fundació Agrupació Mútua, Barcelona; and Ciberehd, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Barcelona, Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de enfermedades hepáticas y digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Barcelona, Spain

    Omar Ortega, Laia Rofes & Pere Clavé

  2. Unitat d’Exploracions Funcionals Digestives, Laboratori de Fisiologia Digestiva CIBERehd CSdM-UAB, Hospital de Mataró, Barcelona, Spain

    Alberto Martin, Viridiana Arreola, Irene López & Pere Clavé

  3. Fundació Institut d’Investigació Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona, Spain

    Pere Clavé

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  1. Omar Ortega
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Correspondence to Omar Ortega.

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All participants were informed about the study and signed the informed consent form. Study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Hospital de Mataró (CEIC 04/12).

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Ortega, O., Rofes, L., Martin, A. et al. A Comparative Study Between Two Sensory Stimulation Strategies After Two Weeks Treatment on Older Patients with Oropharyngeal Dysphagia. Dysphagia 31, 706–716 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-016-9736-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-016-9736-4

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