Helping Patients Swallow After a Stroke
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In the United States, 6 million non-institutionalized adults have had a stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A person suffers from a stroke when the blood supply to an area of the brain becomes disrupted.
The two major forms of stroke include ischemic strokes and hemorrhagic strokes. If a person has an ischemic stroke, the blood flow disruption is caused by a blood clot: the blood clot may form in and block an artery (thrombotic stroke) or the blood clot may travel up and block an artery (embolic stroke), noted MedlinePlus. If a person has a hemorrhagic stroke, then a blood vessel has burst, resulting in bleeding in the brain, which damages nearby cells. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke pointed out that hemorrhagic strokes make up around 20 percent of total strokes.
Patients who survive a stroke can have several complications, which depend on where in the brain the blood flow was disrupted. One such problem is dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing. A patient with dysphagia may not be able to swallow at all, or she may have difficulties when it comes to swallowing saliva, foods or liquids safely, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Dysphagia may cause a patient to breathe food into her airway, called aspiration. Having food breathed into the airways can result in bacteria growth, leading to pneumonia.
In a press release from the American Heart Association, a study published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association found that a non-invasive brain stimulation technique called Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation, or tDCS, helped improve swallowing in patients who has suffered a stroke. With this type of therapy, the patient has electrodes put on her scalp, with the electrodes sending an electrical current to the brain. The study, which was conducted at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, included 14 patients who had had an ischemic stroke within the past seven days.
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