Swallowing disorders after ischemic stroke

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate occurrences of swallowing disorders after ischemic stroke. METHOD: This was a retrospective study on 596 medical files. The inclusion criterion was that the patients needed to have been hospitalized with a diagnosis of ischemic stroke; the exclusion criteria were the presence of associated cardiac problems and hospital stay already more than 14 days. RESULTS: 50.5% were men and 49.5% women; mean age 65.3 years (SD=±11.7) (p<0.001). Among the risk factors, 79.4% had hypertension, 36.7% had diabetes (p<0.001) and 42.7% were smokers. 13.3% of the patients died. Swallowing disorders occurred in 19.6%, among whom 91.5% had mild difficulty and 8.5% had severe difficulty. 87.1% had spontaneous recovery after a mean of 2.4 months. A lesion in the brainstem region occurred in 6.8% (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Swallowing disorders occurred in almost 20% of the population and most of the difficulty in swallowing found was mild. The predictors for swallowing disorders were older age, diabetes mellitus and lesions in the brainstem region.