Diagnosis and Management of Oropharyngeal Dysphagia Among Older Persons, State of the Art

Oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is a condition recognized by the World Health Organization and defined as the difficulty or inability to move a bolus safely and effectively from the oral cavity to the esophagus, and can include aspirations, choking, and residue. OD is pandemic among different phenotypes of older people, affecting between 27% and 91% of the population 70 years or older. Although OD can be diagnosed by well-defined clinical methods and complementary explorations, in the clinical setting OD is seldom systematically screened and treated, and awareness among the medical/geriatric community is scarce. The etiology of OD in this population includes many concomitant risk factors with neurogenic and neurodegenerative processes, muscular weakness, and sarcopenia. The pathophysiology includes mechanical deficits in the swallow response (mainly delayed laryngeal vestibule closure time and weak tongue thrust), reduced pharyngeal sensitivity, and sensory/motor central nervous system impairments. Recently, OD has been recognized as a geriatric syndrome due to its high prevalence and its relationship with many comorbidities and their poor outcomes, including malnutrition, respiratory infections and aspiration pneumonia, functional disability and frailty, institutionalization and increased readmissions, and mortality. There is an evidence-based and effective treatment for OD in the elderly mainly oriented to compensating swallow impairments through adaptation of fluid viscosity and solid food textures to avoid aspiration and choking, and improving nutritional status and oral health to avoid respiratory infections. This has been defined as the minimal effective treatment to be provided to this population. New treatments aiming at recovering the swallowing function are under research with promising results, and the near future will provide us with methods to stimulate the swallow response with pharmacological or physical stimuli.