TY - JOUR
AR - IJCST-2022-4-104
TI - Effects of Brief and Intensive Therapy for Dysphagia in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer during Radio-Chemotherapy: A Pilot Study
AU - Elana de Menezes, Rossetto
AU - Luísa, Bello Gabriel
AU - Bárbara, Luísa Simonetti
AU - Vera, Beatris Martins
AU - Monalise, Costa Batista Berbert
JO - International Journal of Cancer Science and Therapy
PY - 2022
DA - Mon 24, Oct 2022
SN - 
DO - http://dx.doi.org/10.31487/j.IJCST.2022.04.04
UR - https://www.sciencerepository.org/effects-of-brief-and-intensive-therapy_IJCST-2022-4-104 
KW - Speech-Language pathology, deglutition disorders, myofunctional therapy, radiotherapy, rehabilitation
AB - Objective: To verify the effectiveness of a Brief and Intensive Dysphagia Therapy programme, in patients with head and neck cancer, during radio-chemotherapy. 
Study Design: This is a randomized clinical trial - pilot project with a random sample consisting of 11 patients divided into two groups: 7 in the intervention group, who received brief and intensive therapy and 4 in the control group, with weekly therapy. The assessment instruments used were tongue pressure measurement, mouth-opening measures, oral intake scale and quality of life questionnaire. Patients were evaluated before radio-chemotherapy, after 15 days of speech therapy and after radio-chemotherapy. 
Results: The intervention group presented higher values of lingual apex pressure (p = 0.00), mouth opening maintenance from the second evaluation (35.14 ± 16.82 mm) until the end of the radio-chemotherapy (35.29 p± 5.93 mm), greater oral intake functionality (p = 0.00) and improvement in overall aspects of quality of life questionnaire (p = 0.05) after completion of brief and intensive therapy and radio-chemotherapy. 
Conclusion: Brief and intensive therapy presented superior results in the maintenance and/or rehabilitation of the swallowing mechanism in patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radio-chemotherapy.