Active clinical trials for "Deglutition Disorders"

Genetic, neuromuscular, gastrointestinal, cardiorespiratory diseases and congenital abnormalities can cause dysphagia in children (1, 2). Various symptoms such as coughing during or after feeding, vomiting, recurrent lung infections, inability to gaining weight, difficulty in oromotor control, nasal regurgitation, and prolonged feeding time can be seen in children whose growth and development are affected due to dysphagia (3). The primary aim of dysphagia rehabilitation is; gaining a child's age-appropriate nutritional experience by ensuring safe swallowing; supporting growth and development (1). Rehabilitation consists of active or passive oral motor exercises, sensory training, thickened fluids, positioning and their combinations (4, 5). The caregiver is one of the most important partners of the rehabilitation program and should apply feding modifications and positioning for safe swallowing during each feeding. In addition, the exercise approaches recommended by the health personnel should be performed in order to improve the swallowing function at certain times of the day (5). According to a study in patients with neurologenic caregivers' failure to comply with dysphagia strategies; chest infections, aspiration pneumonia, prolongation of hospital stay, and adverse clinical outcomes resulting in death (6). Therefore, the role of caregivers is very important in the perisistence and success of rehabilitation is great. The level of knowledge and awareness of the caregiver directly affects the rehabilitation effectiveness. The knowledge and awareness of the caregiver directly affects the effectiveness of rehabilitation, as it is the caregiver who is most interested and spends time with the child. The caregiver, who has knowledge about dysphagia, symptoms and management, will give the necessary importance to rehabilitation and will be more aware of the child's existing condition. Thus, communication with health personnel will be strengthened, effectiveness of rehabilitation will increase. The aim of this study; to determine the level of knowledge of the caregiver about dysphagias and symptoms.

The study will assess the feasibility of monthly post rehabilitation remote monitoring, using the "MAX Educ" webvision app, in patients with sequelae of aerodigestive cancer treatments.

The study has 6 research questions regarding the use of dysphagia cups: Primary study questions: Can the use of the dysphagia cups increase water consumption and liquid consumption during the trial period? Can the use of the dysphagia cups reduce the frequency and intensity of choking and coughing while drinking? What are the potential risks to the service users while using the dysphagia cups? Secondary study question: Can the use of the dysphagia cups enhance the autonomy of the service users in drinking? Auxiliary study questions: Can the use of the dysphagia cups reduce the amount of thickener used for water consumption? What are the perceived benefits and acceptability of using the dysphagia cups?

Prospective, randomized, controlled, three-arm, open-label, blinded analysis. Patients admitted with stroke diagnosis and with suspected dysphagia that meet the initial inclusion and exclusion criteria will be consented into the clinical investigation. Patients who meet the second set of inclusion criteria (dysphagia confirmed by VFS) will be randomized to either active (motor or sensory) or standard treatment (control group) arms. Subjects included in this clinical investigation will be evaluated at screening, 1-week, 3-months and at 12-months post treatment. The main aim of the study will be to assess the effect of VitalStim therapy on improving the safety of swallow according to the VFS, after the treatment and at 1-year follow up, on patients with chronic post-stroke OD.

Neuromuscular Electrical stimulation (NMES) for swallowing has recently been proposed for the treatment of dysphagia post stroke and is clinically receiving favor as a treatment modality, in the absence of strong research support. This study aims to investigate the effect of NMES therapy for dysphagia upon recovery of swallowing function following stroke. The study will follow a pilot randomized controlled trial design. Fifty one patients admitted to a sub-acute rehabilitation facility will be clinically screened for dysphagia, and randomized into one of three groups, NMES, sham NMES or usual care -behavioral swallowing therapy arm. All patients will be treated for one hour per day for 3 weeks, and their progress and outcome will be monitored. The results will add to the preliminary data on the effectiveness of this form of swallowing treatment for patients following stroke, and has the potential to enable more efficient allocation of resources to post-acute rehabilitation and thus benefit afforded to stroke patients, and the community.

Oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD, swallowing dysfunction) is a major complaint following stroke. Despite its enormous impact on functional capacity, quality of life, and survival, OD is both underestimated and underdiagnosed as a cause of major nutritional and respiratory complications in stroke patients. A recent systematic review on the effects of rehabilitation therapy on OD concluded that although some positive effects were found, the number of studies was small, many of them had methodological problems and there was a need for further research using randomized controlled trials. Transcutaneous electrical stimulation was approved by the FDA as a treatment of dysphagia in June 2001 and is traditionally used to activate pharyngeal muscles through stimulation of peripheral motor nerves (neuromuscular electrical estimulation, NMES). However, their real effectiveness and safety in the treatment of dysphagia is still matter of discussion (Logemann Dysphagia 2007, Ludlow dysphagia 2007) and studies evaluating NMES therapy, present discordant results. On the other hand, in recent years, transcutaneous electrical stimulation is beginning to use as a sensory strategy (Gallas 2010), avoiding muscle contraction during the treatment.Our research strategy includes the assessment of the therapeutic effect of these two main strategies using transcutaneous electrical stimulation on swallow physiology and clinical outcomes of post-stroke dysphagic patients.

This study will evaluate with videofluoroscopy (radiologic method to study the deglutitive physiology) the effect on the deglutition of two therapeutic treatments with the duration of 2 weeks, based on the increase of the sensorial stimuli in older patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia: Stimulation of Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) oropharynx chanels using a natural agonist administrated in the alimentary bolus. Stimulation of the sensorial neurons of the pharynx and larynx using transcutaneous electrical stimuli. Moreover, with an electroencephalographic study we will assess the effect of both treatments in the cortical neuroplasticity.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether functional electrical stimulation is effective in the treatment of dysphagia due to nasopharyngeal cancer post radiotherapy

The purpose of the investigation is to learn whether intense swallowing exercise or intense swallowing exercise coupled with electrical stimulation (E-Stim) helps patients who had head/neck cancer and currently have dysphagia swallow better.

The OCULO-Pharyngeal Muscular Dystrophy (OPMD) is a late onset hereditary muscle disease which is characterised by the selective affection of the pharyngeal muscles resulting in swallowing disorders, and by a ptosis from the dysfunction of the levator palpebral superiors muscles. Swallowing disorders are determinant in the prognosis of the disease, and potentially life-threatening deglutition, due to aspiration and denutrition. Degenerative dystrophy of the pharyngeal muscles causes difficulties to prepulse the food bolus in the pharynx, and the decreased relaxation of the cricopharyngeal muscle induced by the disease leads to blockage of food in the upper esophageal sphincter. The most common treatment for the dysphagia in OPMD is a myotomy of the upper esophageal sphincter muscles. However, although this will relax the constriction of the upper esophageal sphincter muscles and improve transitory the swallowing, it will not prevent the progressive degradation of the pharyngeal muscles. This progressive loss of contractility will eventually result in aspiration and severe difficulty in swallowing, increasing risk of aspiration pneumonia and severe weight loss which are the most common causes of mortality in OPMD patients. The protocol which we are proposing is a graft of autologous cell muscles (myoblasts) isolated from unaffected limb muscles into the pharyngeal muscles of patients diagnosed as suffering from OPMD. Our aim is to improve both swallowing and the contractile deficit generated by the dystrophic pharyngeal muscles. A myotomy of the upper esophageal sphincter will be carried out at the same time as the myoblast transplantation, since we have already validated the improvement resulting from this surgery. Advantages of this new therapy in OPMD is the autograft, without risks of rejection, and the graft of myoblasts into the dystrophic pharyngeal muscles, above the myotomy of the upper esophageal sphincter muscles. This model of cellular therapy has been studied through a preclinical study performed in dogs, allowing to valid the procedure and its safety, as well as to study the survival myoblasts grafted in the pharyngeal muscles. This protocol is proposed for OPMD patients; it is firstly a safety study of both autograft and surgical procedure. In addition, the autograft may improve the swallowing disorders and life-threatening complications induced by aspiration and weight loss, resulting in a potential individual benefit.