Wrapping up

I believe this is a very strong quartet of articles and am glad to have followed the recommendation following the  Dysphagia Cafe webinar; these articles, when read together, create a great mental framework from which dysphagia and aspiration pneumonia can be considered.  Starting with the article by Drs. Coyle and Matthews, the pair challenge clinicians

Aspiration Pneumonia: A Review of Modern Trends written DiBardino & Wunderink.

I won’t lie..it took me two reads of this article to get a handle on the information. During my first pass, I got stuck on the section re: antibiotics and bacteria subtypes. My idea with this summary is to not get caught in the weeds about those topics which I am unfamiliar with and summarize

The more we learn the less we know

Quick facts from “Aspiration Pneumonia: The More We Learning The Less We Know” As it stands, aspiration pneumonia is a vague diagnosis and can occur from any substance entering the lungs (not just via prandial aspiration) In terms of diagnostic testing confirming aspiration pneumonia, microbiology testing is the most effective. Chest x-rays are only 69%

A Dilemma in Dysphagia Management: Is Aspiration caused by the Chicken or the Egg?

Written by: Dr. Coyle & Dr. Matthews The purpose of this article, written by Dr. Coyle and Dr. Matthews, is to provide an introduction to a mental schema for determining whether dysphagia is causing adverse medical outcomes or if the adverse medical outcomes are causing transient dysphagia.  An interesting statistic is posed: in the 1990’s

Prognostic model of swallowing recovery following ischemic stroke

Galovic, M. et al. (2019). Development and validation of a prognostic model of swallowing recovery and enteral feeding after ischemic stroke. JAMA Neurology, 76(5), 561-570. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2018.4858 *In a study completed by University College London, researchers sought to develop a tool that could be used to predict recovery of swallowing abilities following an ischemic stroke and