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[Dysphagia] Esophageal disorders and oropharyngeal dysphagia



I have been reading to the last messages about esophageal dysphagia.



I'm really amazed by the diagnosis and the treatments that you all exchange 
with each other considering the SLP's limited knowledge in that field.



I have not seen one comment from a RD.

I can't believe that I'm the only one here.



I really don't want to insult anyone but : what is the link between speech 
and esophageal dysphagia?

Does any university in the world give an extensive knowledge to SLP about 
the digestive tract?



I would love to see the faces of SLPs that would read RDs exchanging about 
diagnosis and treatment of aphasia, stammering or dyslexia. You would 
probably feel like me right now.



I'm a nutritionist from Canada (RD in the US) that knows a lot about any 
esophageal dysphagia problem. I learned it from the first year at the 
university and have had internship in that field. After that, I had to work 
with patients that have those problems since 16 years, almost everyday. I 
can't believe that any RD anywhere else in the world, has a totally 
different profile.



Those patients ARE taking care of by RDs since we started our profession.

If you see one patient that have this problem and don't have any RD in the 
chart, please make a comment to the MD so he will think about giving a 
consultation to the expert.



Excuse my English, I'm French speaking from Montr?al.



Michel


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Julie Speech" <speechhuffman@nc.rr.com>
To: <Dysphagia@b9.com>; "Alexandra Mitchell" <pawprint1980@yahoo.com.au>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 12:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Dysphagia] Esophageal disorders and oropharyngeal dysphagia


The reason for soft is to avoid tough, fibrous foods that might elicit a 
food-bolus obstruction if not broken down enough prior to swallowing when 
having a significant amount of spasm (i.e. steakhouse syndrome)  Julie
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alexandra Mitchell
  To: Julie Speech
  Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 12:00 AM
  Subject: Re: [Dysphagia] Esophageal disorders and oropharyngeal dysphagia


  Dear Julie,

  You recommend the patient with eosophageal dysphagia being given a soft 
diet with the thin fluids. Don't soft foods end up as a PUREE consistency 
once chewed (this is equivalent to a grade 3 TF consistency - pudding)?

  Thanks for you comprehensive reply to my last email!!

  Alex

  Julie Speech <speechhuffman@nc.rr.com> wrote:
    Alexandra,

    There is a lot of education and recommendations we can provide patient's
    that have various esophageal disorders. Many, but not all, will have
    concomitant changes in oropharyngeal stage as a result.

    The main problem in our discipline is being able to identify primary
    oropharyngeal vs. esophageal dysphagia so we can make the correct 
clinical
    decisions and recommendations. This is a HUGE problem since ignoring the
    esophagus means potential for negatively impacting our patients QOL, 
risking
    misdiagnosis, making bogus recommendations, risking litigation, 
increasing
    health care costs, etc, etc. I find the majority of clinicians are not
    knowledgeable about the esophagus/ GI issues (the "its not our body 
part"
    argument!) I certainly tailor my recommendations to the patient's 
medical
    diagnoses, test results and subjective complaints, but generally 
speaking,
    the recommendations I suggested may be helpful for various esophageal
    disorders. The major mistake made along the way with the gentleman in
    question was assuming the oropharyngeal dysphagia was primary, new 
onset,
    and that the aspiration seen was detrimental. In his case, the
    recommendations of NPO, thickened liquids, etc completely ignore what 
was
    found on his esophagram and the patient's complaints.

    In regard to your question marks below, a reflux diet is one that limits 
or
    avoids foods that either are more offensive coming back up, increase
    transient relaxations of the LES or are slow to digest and therefore 
more
    likely to come up (i.e spicy, acidic, peppermint, chocolate, caffeine, 
fried
    foods, dairy...). By pharyngeal exercise program I meant exercises that
    would maximize the strength of say, the tongue base if the patient has 
lots
    of vallecular residue.

    I hope that answers your question!

    Julie

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: "Alexandra Mitchell"
    To:
    Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 8:08 PM
    Subject: [Dysphagia] Esophageal disorders and oropharyngeal dysphagia


    > Dear Julie,
    >
    > In regards to your email, in response to Keri's, re: eosphageal 
disorder
    > (resulting in aspiration of solids, some liquids).
    >
    > Re: the recommendations that you mentioned (eg: soft diet with thin
    > liquids, avoiding cold fluids, pharyngeal exercise program (?), reflux
    > diet (?), crushing medications and taking these with plenty of water 
to
    > clear the esophageal residue); are those the recommendations that you
    > would have for a patient with an esophageal disorder that is impacting 
on
    > their oropharyngeal swallowing?
    >
    > I would love to do the breakfast workshop that you teach on this also. 
I
    > do have a particular interest in learning in this area: and seem to 
have
    > "plateaued" in what I can effectively teach myself from written 
materials.
    > I would interested to know when the next workshop on this topic is.
    >
    > Thanks for your interesting email (thorough not lengthy!)
    >
    > Kind regards,
    >
    > Alexandra
    >
    >
    > ---------------------------------
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