Oropharyngeal Dysphagia

Book excerpt: This book is a practical guide that will assist ENT doctors in interpreting swallowing videoendoscopies correctly and in choosing complementary instrumental examinations to consolidate or exclude their provisional diagnosis. In addition, it provides speech-language pathologists with valuable hints on how to treat patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia more efficiently. The book is constructed around videoendoscopic features. The relevance of these features to diagnosis and treatment is carefully described with the aid of numerous high-quality illustrations. Beyond this, the relationship of videoendoscopy to two further instrumental examinations – videofluorography and pharyngeal manometry– and to the three treatment paths of texture adaptation, rehabilitation, and surgery is explained. The use of pictograms in this context helps to elucidate the connections, creating in the reader’s mind “clusters of behaviors” of benefit in clinical practice. The book also includes a short summary on swallowing anatomy and physiology, a chapter on medications inducing dysphagia, key take-home messages, and suggestions for further reading.