Active clinical trials for "Deglutition Disorders"

The overall goal of this study is to describe the oral motor skills of neonates born with congenital heart defects, both before and after cardiac surgery, and to evaluate current measures of feeding motor skills and feeding readiness in this population using the Neonatal Oral Motor Assessment Scale (NOMAS) and the Infant Driven Feeding Scale. The specific aims are to: Describe the oral motor skills of infants with CHD before surgery as compared with normal full-term newborn (>37 weeks) using the NOMAS Describe the oral motor skills of infants with CHD after surgery as compared with those same infants before surgery using the NOMAS. Determine if the current Infant Driven Feeding Readiness Scale appropriately identifies which children with CHD are ready for oral feeding. (A. Feeding Readiness Scale, B. Quality of Nippling Scale at the 1st post- operative feeding evaluation) Describe the unique characteristics of oral motor skills in infants with CHD (ie. Wide jaw excursions, poor latch, etc.) Our hypothesis is that infants with CHD will have dysfunctional sucking patterns before surgical repair as compared to normal newborns. This dysfunctional sucking pattern in infants with CHD will have worsened post-surgery as compared to pre-surgery. In addition, the Infant Driven Feeding Scale will be utilized to predict that many infants with CHD will not be ready for oral feedings, however most of those patients will go on to successfully take oral feedings.

The aim of this study is to assess if rTMS on healthy hemisphere at one hertz could improve patients with post stroke dysphagia.

To compare the treatment of gullet cancer with radiotherapy alone and assess the advantage and toxicity of adding chemotherapy. The hypothesis to be tested is as follows: That the addition of chemotherapy to a short course of radiation treatment improves the proportion of patients who achieve relief of dysphagia and improves quality of life compared to radiation alone in patients with advanced oesophageal cancer.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether electrical pharyngeal stimulation in addition to standard care can enhance short-term swallow recovery in tracheostomized dysphagic stroke patients and thereby facilitate earlier decannulation compared to sham treatment plus standard care.

General Objective: To evaluate the swallowing results of speech pathologist rehabilitation of advanced oropharynges, larynx and hypopharynx cancer patients during neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy concomitant to chemotherapy. Methods and Casuistic: Randomized clinical trial phase II. 80 patients with advanced oropharynges, larynx and hypopharynx cancer diagnoses from Barretos Cancer Hospital, which had the proposal of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy. Patients are randomized on two groups: control group and speech pathology therapy group

Swallowing impairment (dysphagia) is extremely common in older adults living with dementia due to age-related changes in swallowing and other disease-specific impairments. Dysphagia is commonly managed by modifying diet textures rather than engaging in rehabilitative swallowing therapy. This means that countless people with dementia are left to eat pureed foods and drink thickened liquids, which are unpalatable and lead to malnutrition. As the disease progresses, many are transferred to nursing homes. In Canada, speech-language pathologists, who manage dysphagia, are consultants within nursing homes; therefore, swallowing therapy is non-existent. However, exercise therapy is more commonly available. Rodent models have demonstrated that physical exercise strengthens tongue and vocal-fold musculature, which are critical components of swallowing. Therefore, it is possible that whole-body physical exercise, which increases rate of respiration, will help to strengthen swallowing-related musculature in older adults with dementia. In this study, older adults (65+) with early-stage dementia will complete a 12-week physical exercise program to determine improvement of swallowing function.

People with swallowing impairment experience particular difficulty swallowing thin liquids safely; the fast flow of liquids makes them difficult to control. The tongue plays a critical role in containing liquids in the mouth, channeling the direction of their flow towards the pharynx (throat) and controlling their flow along that channel. The investigators are engaged in a program of research to better understand tongue function in swallowing, particularly with respect to controlling the flow of liquids. In this study the investigators will compare two different tongue-pressure resistance training protocols, to determine whether a protocol that emphasizes strength-and-accuracy or one that emphasizes pressure timing work better for improving liquid flow control in swallowing.

The purpose of this study is to examine how stroke can alter arousal, alertness, neglect and dysphagia, and whether a medication, modafinil, can improve arousal.

Supplement pharyngolaryngeal deficient functions by insertion of a prosthesis with valves in order to allow tracheotomy closing (when applicable) and / or to allow restoration of god swallowing capacity. The secondary objective is to study the concept of a special valves system for the development of an artificial larynx

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether transcranial direct current stimulation of the cerebral swallow motor cortex in addition to standard care can enhance recovery of swallow function in acute dysphagic stroke patients compared to sham treatment plus standard care.