Eating is one of the most important pleasures in life. Problems with swallowing not only turn this pleasure into misery, but also cause life-threatening risks.
What is Dysphagia?
Eating and feeding is not only something we do every day to survive, but it is also essential for us to enjoy life. Any condition that negatively affects this action can be called dysphagia.
What are the Symptoms of Swallowing Disorder?
There are many different symptoms of swallowing disorders:
- Having a “wet damp” voice during or after eating or drinking, as if there is water between the vocal cords
- Prolonged mealtimes, having to eat longer than everyone else has allotted for a meal
- Feeling that more force is needed to swallow food
- Food or liquid flowing from the mouth
- Food or drink gets stuck in the throat and cannot go down into the stomach
- Having to drink water to swallow food
- Coughing and breathlessness during eating or drinking
- Involuntary weight loss due to malnutrition
- Recurrent pneumonia (aspiration pneumonia)
How is Swallowing Disorder Diagnosed?
Swallowing disorders are caused by diseases that directly or indirectly involve the mouth, throat and esophagus. In order to accurately diagnose these disorders, intensive experience in this field is needed. The physician evaluating the patient may perform additional swallowing examinations after listening to the patient’s history. These examinations may include methods such as endoscopic swallowing evaluation that can be performed in outpatient clinic conditions or sometimes radiologic evaluations. In some cases, it may be necessary to seek additional opinions from specialists in fields such as neurology, gastroenterology, neurosurgery, and speech-language pathology to find the underlying cause.
What are the Diseases Causing Swallowing Difficulty?
Many diseases can cause swallowing disorders. Some of these diseases cause direct damage to the mouth, throat and esophagus. Examples of these diseases are:
- Reflux
- Vocal Cord Paralysis
- Tongue Cancer
- Cancer of the Larynx
- Esophageal Cancer
- Radiotherapy (Beam therapy)
- Zenker's Diverticulum
- Failure to Burp Syndrome
Swallowing disorders can also be observed indirectly in some diseases. Especially conditions related to posture and neurological diseases constitute this group.
- Aging
- Previous Neurosurgery
- Long Stay in Intensive Care
- ALS Disease
- Parkinson's Disease
- Stroke
- Dementia (all causes of dementia)
- Polyneuropathy
- Cerebral Palsy
- Other Musculo-Nervous Diseases
- Scoliosis
- Orthopedic Disorders
Swallowing Difficulty Treatments
- Swallowing Therapy
- Esophageal balloon dilatation surgery
- Esophageal Botox
- Laser swallowing surgery
- ALS - Swallowing Surgery (trachea-esophagus separation surgery)
- Stroke