Flexible Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing
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Dziewas et al. BMC Medical Education (2016) 16:70 DOI 10.1186/s12909-016-0587-3 DEBATE Open Access Flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) for neurogenic dysphagia: training curriculum of the German Society of Neurology and the German stroke society Rainer Dziewas1*, Jörg Glahn2, Christine Helfer3, Guntram Ickenstein4, Jochen Keller5, Christian Ledl6, Beate Lindner-Pfleghar7, Darius G. Nabavi8, Mario Prosiegel9, Axel Riecker7,10, Sriramya Lapa11, Sönke Stanschus12, Tobias Warnecke1 and Otto Busse13 Abstract Background: Neurogenic dysphagia is one of the most frequent and prognostically relevant neurological deficits in a variety of disorders, such as stroke, parkinsonism and advanced neuromuscular diseases. Flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) is now probably the most frequently used tool for objective dysphagia assessment in Germany. It allows evaluation of the efficacy and safety of swallowing, determination of appropriate feeding strategies and assessment of the efficacy of different swallowing manoeuvres. The literature furthermore indicates that FEES is a safe and well-tolerated procedure. In spite of the huge demand for qualified dysphagia diagnostics in neurology, a systematic FEES education has not yet been established. Results: The structured training curriculum presented in this article aims to close this gap and intends to enforce a robust and qualified FEES service. As management of neurogenic dysphagia is not confined to neurologists, this educational programme is applicable to other clinicians and speech–language therapists with expertise in dysphagia as well. Conclusion: The systematic education in carrying out FEES across a variety of different professions proposed by this curriculum will help to spread this instrumental approach and to improve dysphagia management. Keywords: Nervous system diseases, Flexible Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing, Muscular diseases, Stroke, Clinical competence Background patients [2]. Similar data have been published for se- Neurogenic dysphagia is one of the most frequent and vere traumatic brain injury, in which the incidence of life-threatening symptoms of neurological disorders. Swal- clinically relevant dysphagia is approximately 60 % lowing impairment is observed in at least 50 % of all pa- [4]. In this patient population, the occurrence of dys- tients with ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke [1–3]. These phagia is associated with significantly longer artificial patients have a three-fold increased risk of developing respiration and prolonged artificial nutrition [5]. In early aspiration pneumonia, and their mortality is sig- patients with Parkinson’s disease, neurogenic dyspha- nificantly higher than that of non-dysphagic stroke gia is also a major risk factor for the development of pneumonia, the most frequent cause of death in this * Correspondence: [email protected] patient group [6]. In addition, swallowing disorders in 1Department of Neurology, University Hospital Münster, these patients typically lead to major and long-term Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, 48149 Münster, Germany reduction in quality of life, insufficient medication Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © 2016 Dziewas et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Dziewas et al. BMC Medical Education (2016) 16:70 Page 2 of 9 intake and pronounced malnutrition [7]. Around 20–30 % stroke units [21] as well as in numerous acute and re- of all patients with dementia have severe dysphagia with habilitation clinics. Over the past years, the significance of silent aspiration, which goes unnoticed by the patient FEES has increased. This is also reflected by the fact that themself [8–10]. Up to 30 % of all amyotrophic lateral in 2010, the German Institute of Medical Documentation sclerosis (ALS) patients present with swallowing impair- and Information (DIMDI) defined a separate code for this ment at diagnosis [11] and practically all of them develop examination in Chapter 1 ‘Diagnostic Measures’ of the of- dysphagia as the disease progresses. In 15 % of all cases, ficial classification for operations and procedures (1-613: myasthenia gravis manifests itself with swallowing impair- flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing). ment. As the illness progresses, over 50 % of all patients FEES was first described in 1988 by the American SLT are affected, and in more than 50 % of cases, a myasthenic Susan Langmore and colleagues [22] and defined as a crisis is preceded by dysphagia [12]. Patients with inflam- procedure separate from conventional otorhinolaryngo- matory muscle disorders are also often subject to swallow- scopy, which lacks evaluation of swallowing. In Anglo- ing impairment. The frequency is approximately 20 % in American countries, FEES is therefore, to this day, pre- dermatomyositis, 30–60 % in polymyositis, and between dominantly performed by SLTs [23, 24]. 65 and 86 % in inclusion body myositis [13]. Finally, dys- Originally, FEES was conceived as an alternative to the phagia also represents an important diagnostic and thera- historical gold standard, the X-ray-based videofluoro- peutic challenge in the intensive care unit. Regardless of scopic swallowing study (VFSS), to be used when VFSS the primary illness, 70–80 % of patients requiring pro- was either not available or not applicable. However, be- longed mechanical ventilation present, at least temporar- sides being increasingly used in a clinical context, FEES ily, with significant swallowing impairment and aspiration has, within the last 15 years, established itself as an inde- after succesful weaning, probably due to a critical illness pendent and efficient method alongside VFSS [25, 26]. polyneuropathy and structural changes caused by the arti- In the meantime, numerous studies have shown that ficial airway like edema of the arytenoids [14, 15]. This im- FEES is at least as efficient as VFSS, in some studies pairment not only necessitates prolonged artificial even superior to VFSS, in terms of detecting critical nutrition, but is also linked to serious complications, such events, such as penetrations, aspirations and residues as pneumonia and the necessity for reintubation. In [27–29]. Additionally, FEES is highly reliable, a fact addition, it is an independent predictor of increased mor- underlined by an inter-rater reliability of more than tality [16]. 90 % in various studies [30, 31]. In terms of day-to-day practicality, the advantages of FEES are that i) it can be Flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) performed at the bedside, thus facilitating examination The above-mentioned data indicate that swallowing im- of severely motor-impaired, bedridden or uncooperative pairment is a nearly ubiquitous problem in neurology. patients; ii) follow-up examinations can be performed at Affected patients are either treated on an outpatient short notice and, if necessary, frequently; and iii) oro- basis, e.g. in specialised consultations for movement or pharyngeal secretion management and efficacy of clean- neuromuscular disorders, or on an inpatient basis, where ing mechanisms, such as coughing and throat clearing, dysphagia is observed at all levels of care, from the gen- can be assessed simply and directly [32]. Today, FEES eral ward to the intermediate care/stroke unit and the and VFSS are therefore considered to be complementary intensive care unit. methods. Traditionally, the first step in systematic evaluation of Visualisation of the swallow by means of FEES involves dysphagia is a clinical swallowing examination performed introducing a flexible nasopharyngolaryngoscope trans- by appropriately qualified speech and language therapists nasally into the pharynx via the inferior or middle nasal (SLT). However, the validity and the reliability of this clin- meatus. FEES provides an extensive picture of the ical approach are generally insufficient. Particularly the pharyngeal phase of swallowing and enables the detec- pharyngeal phase of swallowing and silent aspiration, tion of indirect signs of impairment within the oral and often seen in patients with neurogenic dysphagia, are diffi- oesophageal phases. The aims of FEES are, in particular, cult to detect using this approach [17]. Therefore, leading to identify pathological movement patterns, to assess the experts in this field often express reservations regarding effectiveness and safety of swallowing, to determine suit- the value of the clinical swallowing examination, and con- able food consistencies or forms of nutrition and to sider an additional instrumental dysphagia assessment to guide the use of therapeutic manoeuvres for each pa- be an absolute necessity [18–20]. tient. Data show that FEES is an exceedingly well- At present, the flexible endoscopic evaluation of swal- tolerated and safe examination. Of 6000 examinations lowing (FEES) is probably the most commonly chosen performed, only 222 (3.7 %) were terminated prema- method for the objective assessment of swallowing in