A therapeutic maneuver for oropharyngeal dysphagia in patients with parkinson's disease

• Main Authors: Valter Nilton Felix, Sabrina Mello Alves Corrêa, Renato José Soares
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Faculdade de Medicina / USP 2008-01-01
• Series: Clinics
• Subjects: Parkinson's disease; Oropharyngeal dysphagia; Rehabilitation; Effortful swallow; Biofeedback
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1807-59322008000500015
• ISSN: 1807-5932; 1980-5322

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates resources to provide better conditions for oropharyngeal swallowing for improvement in the quality of life of Parkinson's disease patients. METHOD: Three men and one woman with an average age of 70.25 years had been afflicted with Parkinson's disease for an average of 9.25 years. The patients were submitted to a rehabilitation program for oropharyngeal dysphagia after a clinical evaluation of swallowing. The rehabilitation program consisted of daily sessions for two consecutive weeks during which a biofeedback resource adapted especially for this study was used. The patients were then reevaluated for swallowing ability at follow-up. RESULTS: The patients presenting difficulties with swallowing water displayed no such problems after rehabilitation. Only one patient exhibited slow oral transit of food and other discrete oropharyngeal food remnants when swallowing a biscuit. The sample variance was used to analyze the pressure measurements, demonstrating a numerical similarity of the results obtained with the swallowing of saliva or of biscuits (VAR = 4.41). A statistical difference was observed between the swallowing of saliva and biscuits, showing a significant pressure increase at the end of the rehabilitation program (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The effortful swallow maneuver reinforced by using biofeedback appears to be a therapeutic resource in the rehabilitation of oropharyngeal dysphagia in Parkinson's disease patients.