Dysphagia (swallowing disorders) is prevalent among patients with stroke and other neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease. It can result in devastating consequences including malnutrition, dehydration, aspiration pneumonia, prolonged hospital stays and increased mortality rate secondary to aspiration pneumonia. However, to date, there is a lack of effective treatment for dysphagia. One of the key factors for functional recovery of swallowing following neurological damage is neuroplasticity, which is the ability of the nervous system to change in response to intrinsic and extrinsic stimuli. Recent studies suggested that neurostimulation treatments, including pharyngeal electrical stimulation (PES), repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), have shown great potential in promoting neuroplasticity in the swallowing system, particularly among stroke patients.
In this talk, I will first review the current evidence on the clinical efficacy of dysphagia treatments. Then I will present findings on the effects of neurostimulation treatments (PES, rTMS and tDCS) on swallowing functions in patients with neurogenic dysphagia. Finally, I will highlight some challenges in using neurostimulation as a dysphagia treatment and discuss how we can translate the research findings into clinical practice.
