by Antonella Sparvoli
Everyone can have trouble “swallowing” a bite of food. For some, difficulty swallowing becomes a health problem (affects more than 10% of those over 65 years old)
Everyone can have trouble “swallowing” a bite of food, but for some people swallowing is difficult. In medical terms it is called “dysphagia” and can become a real health problem.
How widespread it is
«It is estimated that oropharyngeal dysphagia, the most common form which involves difficulty in passing food from the mouth to the esophagus, affects more than 10 percent of those aged over 65, and more than 70% among patients living in nursing homes. – says Francesca Galeazzi, medical director at the Gastroenterology of the University of Padua Hospital and national councilor of the Italian Association of hospital gastroenterologists and digestive endoscopists (Aigo) -. The problem is increasing, also due to the aging of the population and the consequent greater spread of neurological and vascular pathologies.”
Cause
«Oropharyngeal dysphagia is typically linked to the effects of cerebral strokes, degenerative neurological and muscular pathologies and dementia, but it can also result from difficulties in chewing. Generally these are elderly patients, sometimes even with cognitive problems, which can initially make recognizing their condition problematic. The less common esophageal dysphagia, which involves difficulty in passing food from the esophagus to the stomach, is linked to other causes, starting from esophageal tumors or tumors of other districts which however cause compression of the esophagus to disorders of the motility of the esophagus”.
What are the symptoms
«At the beginning the symptoms can be subtle and not very evident. The patient may feel the need to keep food in the mouth for a long time, avoid certain foods or even refuse food and swallow repeatedly. There may also be a loss of saliva or food from the mouth and inhalation symptoms may occur due to the food bolus entering the respiratory tract rather than the esophagus when swallowing. In this case the person may have a gurgling voice or cough after swallowing, up to severe pneumonia resulting from food entering the lungs.”
Stand up straight and lower your chin while eating
If swallowing difficulties are suspected, which can be confirmed with simple questionnaires and swallowing tests, carried out by healthcare personnel even at the patient’s bedside if necessary, it is best to contact specialized centres.
«The diagnosis must be examined in depth with various specialists and healthcare professionals (from ENTs and gastroenterologists to physiotherapists and speech therapists), possibly in a multidisciplinary manner. If appropriate, instrumental methods can be used, such as the radiographic study of the act of swallowing a contrast medium which is filmed or the fiber optic vision of the swallowing study. Therapy depends on the cause, but swallowing rehabilitation measures are always central. Some measures can be implemented immediately, for example, making sure that the person maintains an upright position during meals and trying to lower the chin towards the sternum when swallowing” concludes Galeazzi.
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February 18, 2024 (modified February 18, 2024 | 06:44)
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