Abstract

The study focuses on role of early swallow therapy in acute stroke patients.

Materials and methods: We enrolled 112 acute stroke patients from December 2015-January 2016, among which 91 patients had swallowing difficulty as assessed on fifth day of stroke onset. Impact of type of stroke, size/site of lesion on swallowing difficulty was also assessed. All patients with base GCS-E4M6 VT/V5 were included. Swallowing scoring was done as per National Outcomes Measurements System (NOMS) 8-point Penetration Aspiration scale (PAS). The patients who had aspiration on fifth day received 30 minutes of swallowing therapy for three consecutive days. After three days of therapy swallowing was re-evaluated.

Results: Out of 112 of acute stroke patients 91 (81.25%) patients had dysphagia out of which aspiration was present in 66 (72.5%) patients in their initial swallow evaluation. We couldn’t find any significant impact of Age, Gender, and Type of stroke, Size/Site of lesion on dysphagia/Aspiration. All patients had significant swallowing improvement after therapy on NOMS 8-point PAS (P<0.001). When comparing the result from Day 5 to Day 45 follow up, we found significant improvement in patients eating solid and thickliquidsaftertherapy(p<0.001).

Conclusion: Early swallow therapy is an effective way to treat dysphagia and prevent aspiration.