People who have difficulty swallowing stay longer in hospital, and their prognosis is worse than those who swallow without obstacles, reports the Archives of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery.
Difficulty swallowing is known as dysphagia. They are becoming more common, especially in elderly people.
As shown by the analyzes carried out by specialists from The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, regardless of the diagnosis, dysphagia is associated with a worse prognosis and a longer stay in the hospital. Poor swallowing makes it difficult to drink enough fluids, worsens quality of life and leads to social isolation. Cases of choking are common.
The authors of the analysis relied on studies of 77 million hospital admissions – with 271 cases of difficulty swallowing. Researchers took into account demographic factors, underlying disease, comorbidities, length of hospital stay, and deaths.
Dysphagia was most often associated with fluid and electrolyte disturbances, esophageal diseases, stroke, aspiration pneumonia, urinary tract infections and heart failure. The disorder was twice as likely to occur in people over 75 years of age. A patient with dysphagia was hospitalized by an average of 40%. longer than without dysphagia (4,04 days versus 2,4 days). It turned out that rehabilitated patients were as much as 13 times more likely to die if they had dysphagia. (PAP)