Pretreatment, preoperative swallowing exercises may improve dysphagia quality of life.
OBJECTIVE
Dysphagia is commonly associated with head and neck cancer treatment. Traditional dysphagia management strategies focus on post-treatment therapy. This study evaluated the utility of pretreatment swallowing exercises in improving post-treatment swallowing quality of life (QOL).


METHODS
Prospective cohort study and cross-sectional QOL analysis.


METHODS
This study includes 37 patients who underwent primary radiation or combined chemoradiation treatment for newly diagnosed hypopharyngeal, laryngeal, or oropharyngeal primary tumors at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Of the 37, 25 patients underwent swallowing exercises beginning 2 weeks prior to the start of radiation. The M.D. Anderson Dysphagia Inventory (MDADI) was administered an average of 14 months after treatment to assess the success of the protocol. Analysis of QOL scores related to gender, primary site, stage, and race were obtained.


RESULTS
Patients who performed pretreatment swallowing exercises (n = 25) showed improvement in the overall MDADI score (P = .0002) compared to the control population (n = 12) who underwent post-treatment therapy. Furthermore, a separate analysis of individual domains of the MDADI (global, emotional, functional, and physical) demonstrated improved quality of life.


CONCLUSIONS
Implementation of pretreatment swallowing education and exercise may improve dysphagia-specific QOL in head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiation and/or chemoradiation therapy.
Kulbersh
Brian Daniel
BD
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294, USA. kulbersh@uab.edu
Rosenthal
Eben L
EL
McGrew
Benjamin M
BM
Duncan
Ryan D
RD
McColloch
Nancy L
NL
Carroll
William R
WR
Magnuson
J S
JS
D015331:Cohort Studies; D003679:Deglutition; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life