Question

a 55-year-old married woman, who experienced a stroke approximately four months ago. She experienced dysphasia and was placed on a Level 2 Dysphagia Diet which allowed her to maintain an ideal body weight of 155 pounds until one month ago. She has experienced a slow, but steady weight loss for the past 4 weeks. The patient had a speech therapy assessment for swallow and was referred to you for a Level One Dysphagia Diet with thickened fluids. Her husband assists with food preparation and feeding. He notes that it currently takes more time for his wife to eat than in the past and she seems to lose interest before completing a meal.

B. Explain reasons regular liquids can be dangerous for patients with dysphagia. Describe methods for thickening liquids for this patient.

Answer 1

DYSPHAGIA- It is problem in swallowing the food due to decrease in the peristalsis movement.

The major risk of dysphagia is aspiration,this occurs when food or any particle enters the lung,the major consequence of aspiration is pneumonia.

Stroke is one of the risk for dysphagia.

For dysphagic patients,there is a dysphagic diet which further consists of levels.

LEVEL 1- It consists of foods like pureed fruits,pureed breads,pureed meats,pureed soups,pureed vegetables without lumps or seeds.

LEVEL 2- It consist of moist and soft foods.Regular food can be blended,chopped,grinded,mashed and shredded for it.

LEVEL 3- It contains moist foods in bite size quantity.

Now fluids can be very tricky in dysphagic diets.In dysphagic diets we need to be vigilant about fluids,the fluids should be thick and with the less flow in dysphagic diet.There are various thickeners like flavourless gel,gums,powders,starch and carageenan(sulphated linear polysaccharide).

Gums: 1. xanthas gum(polysaccharide) and it is water soluble.

2.Guar gum

3.Locust bean gum.