OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy of prophylactic swallowing exercises on swallowing function in patients undergoing chemoradiation therapy (CRT) for head and neck cancer. DESIGN Randomized controlled trial. SETTING Tertiary care, academic medical center. PATIENTS Twenty-six patients with head and neck cancer receiving CRT. INTERVENTION Patients performed 5 targeted swallowing exercises ...

Patterns of activity of selected muscle groups which function during the oral phase of swallowing were analysed electromyographically in 33 monkeys (Macuca mulatta) during a total of 113 recording sessions. Salivary, water and masticatory swallows were studied. The activity of the suprahyoid muscle group was relatively constant in each animal during all types of swallows. However, three pattern...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the improvement of dysphagia after balloon dilatation and balloon swallowing at the vallecular space with a Foley catheter in stroke patients. METHODS This study was conducted between May 1, 2012 and December 31, 2015, and involved 30 stroke patients with complaints of difficulty in swallowing. All patients underwent videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) before an...

PURPOSE To evaluate the use of a novel real-time magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique for the assessment of normal swallowing dynamics. MATERIALS AND METHODS In a cohort of 10 healthy subjects, real-time MRI movies at 24.3 frames per second were obtained in sagittal, coronal, and axial orientation during self-controlled swallows of 5 mL pineapple juice as oral contrast bolus. All studie...

Investigation of the neurophysiologic control of swallowing presents the researcher with a fascinating and challenging journey through the varied terrains of neuromotor control. A unique task by virtue of its complexity, the swallowing process is engaged both volitionally and reflexively, presumably driven by both cortical and subcortical neural structures, and is complicated by the nature of s...

Glottal closure during the pharyngeal phase of swallowing is one of the important steps in protecting the airway. Generally, it is believed that any deficiency in this process can lead to laryngeal penetration and aspiration. This study investigated the incidence of laryngeal penetration and aspiration among 44 patients with glottal closure insufficiencies that were referred for voice and swall...

Dysphagia is a relevant symptom in Parkinson’s disease, whose pathophysiology is poorly understood. It is mainly attributed to degeneration of brainstem nuclei. However, alterations in the cortical contribution to deglutition control in the course of Parkinson’s disease have not been investigated. Here, we sought to determine the patterns of cortical swallowing processing in patients with Parki...

Dysphagia is a condition that happens when a person cannot smoothly swallow food from the mouth to the stomach. It causes malnourishment in patients, or can even cause death due to aspiration pneumonia. Recently, more and more researchers have focused their attention on the importance of swallowing and respiration coordination, and the use of non-invasive assessment systems has become a hot res...