Dysphagia in Stroke: Review of the Literature

Abstract

Oropharyngeal dysphagia is a common symptom in stroke patients. In some cases this can lead to serious morbidity, in particular malnutrition and pulmonary aspiration. Dysphagia after stroke are common with an incidence as high as 50 percent, depending on the timing of the assessment, diagnostic methods and criteria, and case mix. The severity of dysphagia varies from subclinical disorders to advanced clinical manifestations that require non-oral feeding. Patients with brain stem lesion are morelikely to experience dysphagia than are patients with strokes of other location of the central nervous system. Following an unilateral cortical stroke swallowing abnormalities may also be encountered. Dysphagia is a common pathology in patients with multiple lacunar infarcts that are mainly located at subcortical and basal ganglia levels. Spontaneous recovery of dysphagia in acute stroke is substantial and in most cases does not need any swallowing rehabilitation.