Effect of neuromuscular electrical stimulation combined with dietary guidance on the treatment of dysphagia after stroke

Dai Xin; Wei Bing; Gong Weijun

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1009-6574.2018.11.006

Abstract：Objective To explore the therapeutic effect of neuromuscular electrical stimulation combined with dietary guidance on dysphagia after stroke. Methods A total of 95 patients with dysphagia after cerebral apoplexy were enrolled in this study from June 2014 to October 2016, and were randomly divided into the study group and the control group. There were 47 cases in the case group and 48 cases in the control group. There were 2 cases of shedding in the case group and 3 cases in the control group due to pulmonary infection. The control group received traditional swallowing rehabilitation training. On the basis of traditional swallowing rehabilitation training, the patients in the case group received neuromuscular electrical stimulation therapy according to the causes of swallowing disorders, combined with corresponding dietary guidance, including improving food characteristics, adjusting patients' eating position, improving feeding methods, choosing eating apparatus, training swallowing skills and so on. To evaluate the efficacy of the treatment, vidio fluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS), Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS) and Videofluoroscopic Dysphagia Scale (VDS) were applied to evaluate patients with dysphagia after stroke. Results The functional scores of the two groups were significantly improved after the training (P＜ 0.05). The functional score of the case group after training was significantly higher than that of the control group (P＜ 0.05). The improvement of the case group was significantly better than that of the control group. Before the intervention of the two groups, the feeding condition and VDS score were not statistically significant (P＞ 0.05). After the intervention, the feeding situation and VDS score of both groups were improved to a certain extent, and the case group was superior to the control group (P＜0.05). The total effective rate of the case group was 86.67%, the control group was 68.90%, and the case group was higher than the control group (χ2=3.38, P=0.026). Conclusions Neuromuscular electrical stimulation combined with dietary guidance and swallowing training has a better improvement of swallowing dysfunction in patients after stroke than using swallowing training alone.