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Dysphagia in Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury

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Abstract

Evidence related to dysphagia in infants and children suffering from traumatic brain injury is limited. Increased information is critical to understand conditions and range of severity so that safe swallowing for oral feeding can occur in those children who present with dysphagia. Reports in the literature are limited due to lack of normative data for swallowing in infants and children, difficulties in obtaining approval in the United States for research using radiographic swallow studies to define pharyngeal physiology, and the wide range of deficits across ages in infants and children who change from week to week. This commentary will focus on incidence, range of severity, a brief summary of what is known in the literature, and discussion of research needs.

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Correspondence to Joan C. Arvedson.

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Dorie A. Mendell and Joan C. Arvedson declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Mendell, D.A., Arvedson, J.C. Dysphagia in Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury. Curr Phys Med Rehabil Rep 4, 233–236 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40141-016-0132-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40141-016-0132-7

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