Department of Neurology, Nuovo Garibaldi Hospital, via Palermo, 95100 Catania, Italy.
Brain Stimul. 2013 May;6(3):418-23. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2012.09.001. Epub 2012 Sep 23.
Treatment options for dysphagia associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) are currently limited. In this study we investigated whether intraluminal electrical pharyngeal stimulation facilitates swallowing recovery in dysphagic MS patients.
Twenty dysphagic MS patients were randomized to receive 5 Hz "real" pharyngeal stimulation (10 patients) for 10 min or "sham" pharyngeal stimulation for 10 min (10 patients). Patients were evaluated by videofluoroscopic, and electromyographic examinations, and by the Penetration/Aspiration Scale (PAS) performed before (T0) and immediately after the last session of 5 consecutive days of electrical pharyngeal stimulation (T1), and then after two (T2), and four (T3) weeks of 5 consecutive days of pharyngeal electrical stimulation.
Patients who received "real" stimulation showed a significant improvement in all the swallowing outcome measures as compared with those receiving "sham" stimulation.
No specific treatment for oro-pharyngeal dysphagia related to MS has been described to date. Our preliminary findings suggest a potential benefit of intraluminal electrical pharyngeal stimulation for the treatment of dysphagia caused by MS.
目前，与多发性硬化症（MS）相关的吞咽困难的治疗选择有限。在这项研究中，我们研究了管内电咽部刺激是否有助于吞咽困难的 MS 患者的吞咽恢复。
20 名吞咽困难的 MS 患者被随机分为接受 5Hz“真实”咽部刺激（10 名患者）10 分钟或“假”咽部刺激（10 名患者）10 分钟。患者在治疗前（T0）和 5 天连续电咽部刺激的最后一次治疗后立即（T1），然后在 2 周（T2）和 4 周（T3）进行视频荧光检查和肌电图检查，并进行渗透/吸入量表（PAS）检查。
与接受“假”刺激的患者相比，接受“真”刺激的患者在所有吞咽结果测量中均显示出显著改善。
迄今为止，尚无针对与 MS 相关的口咽性吞咽困难的特定治疗方法。我们的初步发现表明，管内电咽部刺激可能对 MS 引起的吞咽困难有潜在的益处。
