Dysphagia Severity and Outcomes Following Iatrogenic High Vagal Nerve Injury

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Dysphagia Severity and Outcomes Following Iatrogenic High Vagal Nerve Injury Via otol rhinol Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 2021 Jun 22:34894211026991. doi: 10.1177/00034894211026991. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE: To examine severity of dysphagia and outcomes following iatrogenic high vagal nerve injury. METHODS: Retrospective chart review of all patients with iatrogenic high vagal nerve injury that were seen at a tertiary referral center from 2012 to 2020. RESULTS: Of 1304 patients who met criteria for initial screening, 18 met all inclusion cri teria. All 18 required intervention to address postoperative dysphagia. Eleven required enteral feeding tubes with 7 eventually able to advance to exclusively per oral diets. Fourteen underwent vocal fold injection and 6 underwent laryngeal framework surgery. Sixteen pursued swallowing therapy with speech language pathology. Patients lost a mean of 8.6 kg of weight in the 6 months following the injury. Swallowing function on the Functional Outcome Swallowing Scale (FOSS) and Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS) was 4.4 and 2.4 respectively immediately following the injury and improved to 1.9 and 5.3 at the last follow-up. No patients had complete return of normal swallowing function at last follow up. CONCLUSION: Iatrogenic high vagal injury causes significant lasting dysphagia which improves with intervention but does not completely resolve. Interventions such as vocal fold injection, medialization laryngoplasty, cricopharyngeal myotomy, or swallowing therapy may be required t o reestablish safe swallowing in these patients. PMID:34157900 | DOI:10.1177/00034894211026991 View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.