Abstract

HINCAPIE-HENAO, LILIANA; LUGO, LUZ ELENA; ORTIZ, SERGIO DANIEL  and  LOPEZ, MARÍA EUGENIA. Prevalence of dysphagia in a special care unit. CES Med. [online]. 2010, vol.24, n.2, pp.21-29. ISSN 0120-8705.

Introduction:Dysphagia is defined as a difficulty to swallow food that can be either organic or functional in origin. In the former case, it´s caused by tumors or structural alterations of congenital nature; in the latter case, it affects the synergy of the swallowing process, and can appear at any age. Dysphagia must be diagnosed as quickly as possible, and a specialist must assess it in order to implement safe swallowing techniques and appropriate dietetic and nutrition strategies. Objective:to identify the patients of a special care unit who suffer from swallowing disorders and to characterize the direct causes of such disorders by using the data recorded in their evaluation and clinical history Subjects and methods:we assessed 31 patients from a special care unit (14 were male and 17 female) whose ages ranged from 18 to 88. Data regarding diagnosis and reasons for hospitalization were taken from the clinical history. Likewise, an instrument was used for swallowing assessment. Results:the diagnosis for the assessed patients was: Cancer: 29 %, CVD 12.9 %, COPD 12.9 %, TBI 6.5 %. The prevalence of dysphagia was 35.5%, and 29 % of the subjects had risk of bronchoaspiration, thus requiring a catheter for feeding. Conclusions: the most frequent indications for the presence of swallowing disorders were: difficulty to handle one's own secretions, wet voice, delay in preparing the bolus, and slow laryngeal elevation. Patients with longer hospital stay had prolonged mechanical ventilation and difficulty to feed orally.

Keywords : Swallowing disorders; Critical care; Prevalence; Nutrition; Aspiration pneumonia.

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