Does etiology matter? Comparative analysis of a singing-enhanced swallowing protocol for patients with neurological impairment versus head and neck cancer

Myung Sun Yeo, Ga Eul Yoo, Sung Rae Cho, Soo Ji Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Swallowing difficulties are a common complaint among patients with a variety of dis-eases. To address these concerns, a singing-enhanced swallowing protocol was constructed, and its differential benefits for two patient populations were investigated. Two patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and two patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) participated in this study. Each patient participated in 30-min individual sessions of a singing-enhanced swallowing protocol two times per week for 12 weeks. Following the intervention, laryngeal diadochokinesis and quality-of-life measurements were found to be higher in all four patients. However, the Videofluoroscopic Dysphagia Scale showed this improvement was associated with different swallowing tasks for each patient group. In addition, the maximum phonation time decreased for patients with HNC, while it increased for patients with PD. The findings support the use of a singing-enhanced swallowing protocol for patients whose swallowing difficulties are due to neurological or structural impairment. In addition, the study results suggest that different intervention components should be considered depending on the etiology of the patient’s swallowing difficulties.

Original languageEnglish
Article number997
JournalBrain Sciences
Volume11
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • Dysphagia
  • Head and neck cancer
  • Laryngeal elevation
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Singing

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Does etiology matter? Comparative analysis of a singing-enhanced swallowing protocol for patients with neurological impairment versus head and neck cancer'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this