Functional endoscopic evaluation of swallowing among hospitalized patients Evaluación de la deglución con nasofibroscopia en pacientes hospitalizados: Factores predictivos y seguimiento intrahospitalario. Experiencia en un hospital clínico universitario

Abstract

Background: Swallowing disorders are common in hospitalized patients. Functional endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) is a simple, safe and effective test for the diagnosis and monitoring of these disorders. Aim: To report the results of functional endoscopic swallowing evaluation. Material and Methods: Retrospective review of all records of functional swallowing evaluation procedures performed in a 6 months period. Results: A total of 327 evaluations were analyzed. Sixty seven percent were performed for the first time in a patient and 32.4% were follow-up evaluations. Mean age of patients was 73 ± 17 (SD) years and 56% were male. Twenty nine percent had prolonged orotracheal intubation (> 48 hours). Swallowing was evaluated as normal, mildly, moderately and severely altered in 8.2, 27, 27 and 38% of cases, respectively. Age (> 50 years) and orotracheal intubation were the most important predictors of severity (p = 0,01). Oral feeding was achieved during hospital stay in 78 and 5