[Dysphagia] re: silent aspiration

[naomislp at aol.com (naomislp@aol.com)]

I agree this is a difficult question but we are all out in the field, trying to manage these problems without very clear direction from the research. Practically speaking, we may not be able to predict exactly when aspiration will lead to pneumonia but it seems reasonable to predict that a set of certain conditions will make certain pts more vulnerable to potential negative effects from aspiration than others - e.g., bed-ridden pt, with compromised nutrition, running fevers, perhaps admitted for resp failure, currently on trach, vent-dependent, etc.... probably wouldn't be able to manage even small amount of aspiration. Is this an incorrect assumption? Do we have any more precise way of predicting aspiration outcomes?
 
Naomi