Letter to the Editor

A Case of Occult Oropharyngeal Dysphagia

Authors: Raymond Bedgood, DO, Melvin Bullock, MS, IV, Ayaz Chaudhary, MD

Abstract

Requests for feeding tube placement, in those newly diagnosed with dysphagia, is a common request of the gastrointestinal medicine service. Most dysphagia is either oropharyngeal or esophageal. The prevalence of oropharyngeal dysphagia is very high in patients with neurologic diseases such as cerebral vascular accidents (CVA), Parkinson disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (AML), as well as in more than 60% of elderly institutionalized patients.1,2 We describe the case of an adult patient with severe mental retardation who developed substantial oropharyngeal dysphagia and aspiration pneumonia after an unknown foreign body ingestion.

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References

1. Clave P, Terre R, de Kraa M, et al. Approaching oropharyngeal dysphagia. Rev Esp Enferm Dig2004;96:119–131.
 
2. Cook IJ, Kahrilas PJ. AGA technical review on management of oropharyngeal dysphagia.Gastroenterology 1999;116:455–478.
 
3. Dallal HJ, Odum J, Ahluwalia NK. Covert dysphagia in the mentally handicapped: two case reports and a review of the published literature. Dysphagia 1996;11:194–197.