Clinic Complications of dysphagia in patients admitted to an ICU

Abstract

Introduction: The Intensive Care Units (ICUs) are premises for the attention and care of medically compromised patients. Early speech-language therapy aims to quickly identify dysphagia, preventing clinical complications. Clinical evaluation at the bedside is a currently used form to identify. Objective: To relate the presence of dysphagia and clinical complications in adult patients with different underlying diseases hospitalized in an ICU. Methods: A retrospective, descriptive study conducted by analysis of speech-language therapy protocols of patients admitted to an ICU from July 2012 to April 2014. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee in Research of the participating institutions. Results: The sample included 110 patients, most sent with clinical pulmonary and / or neurological disorder, with mean age of 60.3 years. They found significant associations of dysphagia diagnosed with malnutrition (p = 0.020) and a trend of association with patients undergoing tracheostomy (p = 0.058). It was observed that the mechanical ventilation is superior four days, on average, in patients with dysphagia and that every day that a patient goes on mechanical ventilation increases by 10% the chance to present swallowing change. Conclusion: The clinical complications found in patients undergoing clinical assessment with dysphagia were malnutrition and age, whose dysphagia level varies and worsens with age. The speech therapy allows early diagnosis of dysphagia, reducing the length of hospital stay and providing better quality of life to the patient.