A Prospective Study of FibreopticEvaluation of Functional Swallowing Disorders

Abstract

The aim of the study is fibreoptic evaluation of functional swallowing disorders. The study design is prospective interventional study. The study was carried out in 30 patients with complaints of dysphagia. The endoscopic examination was carried out during an active swallow routine after the history, routine ENT examination, and findings recorded. In about 30 patients aged (21 -80 years), the average age was 55 years, with minimum age of 29 years and maximum age of77 years. The largest group of patients belonged to the age group of 41 to 60 years which constituted around 56% of the population. Out of 30 patients, 20(67%) were male and 10(33%) were female. The most common symptoms with which the patients presented in our study were speech problems 14(46%) such as nasalance 2(4%), slurred speech 4(9%) and hoarseness of voice 8(17%) followed by the complaint of coughing 13(43%) and complaint of nasal regurgitation 8(17%). FEES was able to detect silent aspiration in 7% of our cases. According to the site of lesions the most common site of lesion which affected the patients of dysphagia was locally in l1 (36%) cases followed by nuclear lesion in 10(32%) and then supranuclear lesions in 10(32%) cases. Patients were then advised swallow therapy and improvement with various manoeuvres was observed in about 22(73%) patients whereas there was no improvement observed in 8(27%) patients. We can draw the conclusion that fibreoptic endoscopic examination proved to be a useful and reliable diagnostic tool for functional dysphagia evaluation and planning different modalities of rehabilitation for dysphagia.