Swallowing outcome to speech therapy intervention in resistant hypertensive patients with obstructive sleep apnea

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate (i) the outcome of swallowing therapy program on the rehabilitation of oropharyngeal dysphagia in resistant hypertensive patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and (ii) the association between the clinical and anthropometric characteristics of these individuals and this outcome. Methods: This was a prospective interventional study in which resistant hypertensives diagnosed with OSA by polysomnography and dysphagia by fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FESS) participated. All participants underwent a FEES and assessment of the risk of dysphagia (Eating Assessment Tool, EAT-10) and swallowing-related quality of life (Swal–QoL) before and after the intervention. The therapeutic program was performed daily by the participants, with weekly speech-therapist supervision for eight weeks, including the following strategies: Masako, chin tuck against resistance, and expiratory muscle training. Results: A total of 26 (78.8%) of the participants exhibited improvement in the degree of dysphagia in the intervention outcome. After the intervention, there was a statistically significant improvement in the level of penetration–aspiration (p = 0.007), the degree of pharyngeal residue (p = 0.001), the site of onset of the pharyngeal phase (p = 0.001), and the severity of dysphagia (p = 0.001) compared to before intervention. The EAT-10 score was 2 (0–6) before and 0 (0–3) after intervention (p = 0.023). Swal–QoL had a score on the symptom frequency domain of 92.8 (75–100) before and 98.2 (87.5–100) after intervention (p = 0.002). Conclusions: Resistant hypertensive patients with OSA showed improved swallowing performance after swallowing therapy program.