[Clinical Analysis of Evaluation of the Swallowing Function before Gastrostomy in an Acute-care Hospital for Elderly People].

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, while defining a significant reduction of the medical fee points for gastrostomy in the medical fee revision of fiscal year 2014, assigned additional fee points for evaluation of the swallowing function by videofluoroscopy (VF) or videoendoscopy (VE) prior to gastrostomy. In addition, for facilities that carried out more than 50 gastrostomy operations, evaluation of the swallowing function was made mandatory in all cases and 35% of oral ingestion recovery rate to require the full amount calculation. Therefore, we evaluated the data on swallowing function evaluation in patients and gastrostomy at our hospital. During a 3-year period from February 2012, 114 patients who underwent gastrostomy at our hospital were enrolled. We evaluated the background disease, indications for gastrostomy, conduct/non-conduct of swallowing function tests prior to gastrostomy, videoendoscopic score (VE score), and the functional oral intake score before and after gastrostomy in the patients. The predominant background diseases were cerebrovascular disease (33%), Parkinson's syndrome (26%), and Alzheimer's disease (11%). The indications for gastrostomy were dysphagia (38%), request for gastrostomy from other hospitals or nursing care home (24%), and malnutrition due to anorexia (18%). The severity of the dysfunction was classified based on the VE score as mild (28%), moderate (47%), or severe (25%). Dysphagia did not reach the majority of reasons for gastrostomy and not few of background diseases were progressive neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease. Therefore, it remains under debate whether it is necessary to perform swallowing functional evaluation by VE or VF in all cases prior to gastrostomy. In some cases in which gastrostomy was indicated, the VE scores were not so high. Therefore, a comprehensive evaluation based on the pathophysiology and social background is needed to judge the indication for gastrostomy. Leading support and participation in the calculation of additional fee points for the evaluation of swallowing function is an urgent issue for otolaryngologists.