Conservative Treatment of Dysphagia

Dysphagia can be caused by an anatomic abnormality or neurological dysfunction in either one or combination of all of these factors. Especially, dysphagia is one of common complications of stroke and related with the survival as well as prognosis of functional recovery of cerebrovascular accident. Irrespective of its primary causes of swallowing difficulty, the options for conservative treatment of dysphagia are adopted according to the functional status of the patient. The most important goals of the conservative management are promoting oropharyngeal transit and protecting the airway from aspiration. In this review, major non-operative therapeutic methods are illustrated: behavioral interventions including compensatory maneuvers, diet preparation, tube feeding and prostheses. Also, the clinical application of them is discussed. Each of these treatments should be applied to patients cautiously after a thorough consideration of the functional recovery and risk evaluation of aspiration. Furthermore, the nutritional requirement of patients ought to be taken into account.