Virtual Dysphagia Evaluation: Practical Guidelines for Dysphagia Management in the Context of the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Abstract

With encouraging signs of pandemic containment nationwide, the promise of return to a full range of clinical practice is on the horizon. Clinicians are starting to prepare for a transition from limited evaluation of emergent and urgent complaints to resumption of elective surgical procedures and routine office visits within the next few weeks to months. Otolaryngology as a specialty faces unique challenges when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic due to the fact that a comprehensive head and neck examination requires aerosol-generating endoscopic procedures. Since the COVID-19 pandemic is far from being over and the future may hold other highly communicable infectious threats that may require similar precautions, standard approaches to the clinical evaluation of common otolaryngology complaints will have to be modified. In this communication, we present practical recommendations for dysphagia evaluation with modifications to allow a safe and comprehensive assessment.

Dysphagia Care Across the Continuum: A Multidisciplinary Dysphagia Research Society Taskforce Report of Service-Delivery During the COVID-19 Global Pandemic

“…In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, many health professionals are facing challenges in providing care to patients using traditional in-person care. In response, organizations began advocating for telehealth or telepractice where possible to reduce unnecessary person-to-person contact [68]. Telehealth, or the use of telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, is a model that has been used in prior public health emergencies and disasters [69], and has been implemented as part of standard care in several countries and healthcare systems prior to the current global health crisis.…”

Uptake of telepractice among speech-language therapists following COVID-19 pandemic in India

“…Telepractice was thus viewed as a solution to this problem. Telepractice over in-person face-to-face interaction for dysphagia screening and intervention has been recommended to avoid the risk of COVID-19 transmission (Fritz et al, 2020;Miles et al, 2020;Soldatova, Williams, Postma, Falk, & Mirza, 2020).…”

Evolução funcional da deglutição em pacientes com COVID-19 internados em UTI

“…The complex conditions of these patients can be caused by the direct action of the virus or by the immune response to infection (10) . Longitudinal monitoring of these patients is an attempt to reduce disabilities and the need for long-term care (11,12) . Oropharyngeal dysphagia in an intensive care setting is still poorly studied, but it is frequently reported as a common symptom in several complex health conditions (13) .…”