Category: Reviews

Here’s hoping your Dysphagia Course was more in depth than mine when it came to the wide-ranging topics and areas for discussion, debate, and discovery! My journey began with this sub-population population after recently starting at a hospital that is very much geared towards geriatrics. Even though I was on the big learning curve for VFSS, I still had many stroke, trach, and other general diagnoses under my belt. But generally healthy older adults? Panic started to creep in for sure as I had to debate daily if their dysphagia was due simply presbyphagia, related to another diagnosis, OR impacted by the many spinal deviations we constantly saw across this population; not to mention a possible combination!😓

These kinds of anatomical changes and resulting swallowing impairments definitely threw me for a loop but made me realize the huge difference between acutely-related impairments and general geriatric swallowing. Of course if I could turn back time I would’ve had this article in hand while staring at that spinal curvature. But now that it’s here it is100% worth giving a full read and sharing it to to anyone and everyone in the same boat!😍

Pop. Fizz. Gulp….No, I’m not renaming the Rice Krispy elves. Just thinking about those thirst-quenching moments when drinking one of those bubbly drinks create a pretty sensation-filled picture. And then, how the actual carbonation, aka chemesthesis, makes you swallow ever so slightly different (are you a big gulper or slow slipper for these delectable drinks?!). If there was ever a magical cure in a can, could this be it?🤔 While there’s some more research for all things sensory, this comprehensive review makes us look a little harder to notice some patterns and possibly even take a pause before we take that next sip!🤯

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like a revolving door while working in the medical field. You see one diagnosis, then another, then a completely new one you can’t even begin to pronounce. But eventually, wherever you are, you start to pick up the ever-changing flow and notice the constants that remain. Among many other things, patients  with “waste emptying” problems, otherwise known as chronic renal/kidney disease/failure (relating to CKD, CKF, ESRD etc. other names seen in medical charts), has been a constant ever since my very first clinical fellowship placement. The main reason for picking this article out of the thousands of others I would have normally perused to review was essentially the déjà vu moment after seeing yet another CKD patient, in the hospital, for a dysphagia-related consult. Maybe you’ll get that same déjà vu reading it too!?!💫

At the end of a long VFSS, don’t you just wannt REST?! That is, a “Robust Esophageal Screening Tool!” This article is one that asks a question, uses that curiosity to find some possible solutions, and pushes our field forward in providing the best care for our patients and across disciplines.

This review will give you all the truth behind the DOSS if you dare to add it to your dysphagia repertoire! The original article is not only an easy-to-read but also easy-to-implement call to action. And because everyone’s toolbox might look a little different where you’re at, it can be worth knowing what might be beneficial to add or dig back out in yours!🤓

There’s no doubt the vast majority of us wish we had a better map when it comes to the island of dysphagia (at some point we didn’t even have a map!). From so many different ways to assess, examine, test, compare, and treat the swallowing mechanis, , it’s no wonder why we all feel so lost most of the time!😩

This forward thinking team bravely try to make connections between what we might see on fluoro, what we might need to do to fix it, and what we just don’t know yet and the lack of evidence for some parts.

If you’re feeling brave to discover these results in this adventure, let’s dive in!🤠

With the holiday season upon us quicker than an NPO patient downing 3 oz of water, what better topic to think about than gastroesophageal reflux?!

While some make the case it might not necessarily be directly within our wheelhouse, it’s definitely a topic that’s frequently discussed and encountered enough by our patients, peers, and professional colleagues to make it relevant.
So what do we need to know? Well to be frank, lots🥴. But since we can’t diagnose nor prescribe, this specific article took a stab at investigating other common recommendations and strategies to help manage reflux symptoms in much simpler ways and that we’ve already been doing!
Who knows, you might even find yourself holding your head a bit higher after reading!😄

“Could we just…” “I’d like to….”
“No.” “We don’t do that here.” “We can’t do that.”
Do you ever get spooked having this short back-and-forth in your setting?😱 While it can be related to many things, one common conversation is often heard between an SLP and Radiologist.
If we’re ever gonna get along, we need to know just what it is we disagree (or agree) with!🤥 This article is just a start in helping both sides see the other’s point of view and find some surprisingly common ground in order to provide the best services to our patients.

Hopefully you guys have a little energy left after all these intense revelations to learn about the last and final intensive swallowing protocol of the series. While not as well known as the Pelaton approach, this protocol out of New York University is still in the preliminary stages but I’m sure we can expect bigger and better results to come for exercise-based interventions in dysphagia🤩

While locating an individual article for this specialized head and neck cancer program proved difficult, getting the overall framework and some details still makes me wanna roll up my sleeves, push up my hyoid, andwork work work on this Boot Camp Approach!💪