Research report
Swallowing disorders in a population of children with cerebral palsy

https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-5876(92)90067-YGet rights and content

Abstract

One of the disabilities in patients with cerebral palsy (CP) is dysphagia. To establish the prevalence of dysphagia in a population of children with CP, and to determine if any factors are related to dysphagia, we studied 56 CP patients, 5–21 years, enrolled in a primary school for the disabled. Fifteen patients (27%) had either radiographic or clinical evidence of dysphagia. These 15 patients were compared to the remaining 41 patients without dysphagia. Using data obtained from chart review and interviews with speech pathologists, several factors that contributed to dysphagia were found. These included: bite reflexes, slowness of oral intake, poor trunk control, inability to feed independently, anticonvulsant medication, coughing with meals, choking, and pneumonia. We also noted trends in the following factors: presence of tongue thrusting, presence of drooling, severity of CP, poor head control, severity of mental retardation, seizures, and speech disorders. Factors not related to the presence of dysphagia include: subject age, cause of CP, and type of CP. Early, aggressive work-up and identification in CP patients with the risk factors outlined above can reduce the associated pulmonary complications.

References (10)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (53)

  • Evaluation of the efficacy of cervical perivascular sympathectomy on drooling in children with athetoid cerebral palsy

    2015, European Journal of Paediatric Neurology
    Citation Excerpt :

    It has been demonstrated the surgery could diminish sympathetic nerve effect, relieve vascular spasm, which might be another mechanism for drooling. It is well known that improved head control and swallowing abilities are key factors affecting drooling.1,32 In this study, those relative symptom improved in some different children, such as swallow function, speech or head and posture control, according to the interview of their parents or caregiver.

  • Clinical signs suggestive of pharyngeal dysphagia in preschool children with cerebral palsy

    2015, Research in Developmental Disabilities
    Citation Excerpt :

    While widely considered the gold standard for detecting aspiration, VFSS tends to be restricted to tertiary hospitals (requiring trained personnel) and children are exposed to radiation during the procedure. Thus referral rates have remained relatively low, depending on the geographical region (Clancy & Hustad, 2011; DeMatteo et al., 2005; Waterman et al., 1992). A number of studies have explored the patterns of pharyngeal phase impairments in CP, using clinical (Arvedson et al., 1994; Calis et al., 2008; Dahl, Thommessen, Rasmussen, & Selberg, 1996; Del Giudice et al., 1999; Erkin, Culha, Ozel, & Kirbiyik, 2010; Fung et al., 2002; Gerek & Ciyiltepe, 2005; Reilly & Skuse, 1992; Reilly et al., 1996; Rogers et al., 1994; Santoro et al., 2012; Sullivan et al., 2000; Wilson & Hustad, 2009; Yilmaz, Basar, & Gisel, 2004) and instrumental assessments (Arvedson et al., 1994; Field, Garland, & Williams, 2003; Gisel, Applegate-Ferrante, Bensen, & Bosma, 1995; Griggs, Jones, & Lee, 1989; Helfrich-Miller, Rector, & Straka, 1986; Morton et al., 2002; Rogers et al., 1994; Waterman et al., 1992; Weir et al., 2007, 2011; Wright, Wright, & Carson, 1996), but estimates of specific clinical signs of pharyngeal phase impairment have varied significantly.

  • Oropharyngeal dysphagia in preschool children with cerebral palsy: Oral phase impairments

    2014, Research in Developmental Disabilities
    Citation Excerpt :

    There were more children with oral phase OPD with poorer GMFCS function, which was consistent with oral phase findings by Kim and colleagues (Kim et al., 2013). This was also consistent with our previous work (Benfer et al., 2013), and that by others (Calis et al., 2008; Erkin, Culha, Ozel, & Kirbiyik, 2010; Fung et al., 2002; Parkes, Hill, Platt, & Donnelly, 2010; Reilly et al., 1996; Santoro et al., 2012; Sullivan et al., 2000; Waterman, Koltai, Downey, & Cacace, 1992) looking more broadly at OPD. The OPD severity of children with CP as a group was on average 3 out of 10 for solids and between 1 and 3 out of 10 for fluids.

View all citing articles on Scopus

Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology, May 10, 1991, Hawaii.

View full text