Effect of Oral Menthol on the Swallow Response of Patients With Oropharyngeal Dysphagia Associated With Neurological Diseases and Aging

Hospital de Mataró38 enrolled

Overview

Oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is the most frequent digestive disorder in older people (\>70 years) and has been recently recognized as a geriatric syndrome. The main features of OD are: a high prevalence and severe complications either related with the decreased swallowing efficacy with 45% prevalence of malnutrition or due to decreased swallowing safety with 50% prevalence of aspiration pneumonia that increases hospital stay by 100% and leads to a 50% of mortality rate. However, there is no specific pharmacologic treatment for OD in older patients yet. Treatments are now evolving from compensation to active treatments aiming to restore the swallowing dysfunction and some groups have been looking for new therapeutic strategies. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the effect of administering menthol in bolus on the swallowing response in elderly and neurogenic patients with OD. In addition, this study will also assess the side effects of this pharmacological strategy.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

TRIPLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Deglutition Disorders

Interventions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 70 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * patients with suspicion of OD associated with aging (\>70 years), neurodegenerative diseases or stroke. Exclusion Criteria: * Patients with suspicion that they will not be able to compliment the protocol, patients participating or have participated in a clinical study the last 4 weeks and patients with alcoholic or drugs dependence

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Laryngeal vestibule closure time

timing of the opening of the laryngeal vestibule (LV), glossopalatine junction (GPJ) opening being given the time value 0

Time frame: Laryngeal vestibule closure time is assessed during the videofluoroscopic assessment. Laryngeal vestibule closure time can occur between 100 milliseconds from the GPJ opening up to 1000 milliseconds.