What is Dysphagia?

Question: What is Dysphagia?

Answer: Dysphagia is a difficulty or inability to swallow as a result of a disease process, and it is a common problem encountered by stroke survivors.

What Causes Dysphagia?

Dysphagia can result from injury to the areas of the brain that control swallowing or injury to the nerves or muscles that actually carry out the act of swallowing.

Both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes that affect certain areas of the gray matter, the white matter or the brainstem are common causes of dysphagia.

Other causes of dysphagia include certain dementias, severe forms of Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, brain cancers, Lou Gerrig’s disease and the Guillain Barre syndrome.

Dysphagia can also occur due to damage to certain structures in the head and neck in the context of trauma, cancer and radiation therapy.

What are the complications of having dysphagia?

Dysphagia can cause severe malnutrition, pulmonary infections and even death. By comparison with patients without dysphagia, patients with dysphagia are often kept in the hospital for longer periods of time.

This is often due to pulmonary infections and a much slower recovery. In some cases, dysphagia is so severe that physicians must resort to the placement of a feeding tube in order to deliver much needed nutrients and medications.

All on dysphagia after stroke

_{Source: Bronwyn Jones; Normal and Abnormal Swallowing, Imaging in Diagnosis and Therapy; 2002 Second Edition - Springer}