Published Paper Details:

Eating and swallowing are complex behaviours involving volitional and reflexive activities. They have two important biological functions: the movement of food from the oral cavity to stomach and the defense of the airways. Dysphagia takes its name from the Greek root phagein, meaning to ingest or engulf. Carotid Endarterectomy (CEA) is a surgical procedure used to reduce the risk of stroke from carotid artery stenosis. Dysphagia following bilateral carotid endarterectomy may result if the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) is weakened and the vocal fold is paralyzed. The open airway prevents the vocal folds from acting as the final line of aspiration defence. Ekberg (2002) analyzed the capacity of 12 patients to swallow before and after carotid endarterectomy. Findings prior to surgery were common for all swallowing trials so after surgery five patients had pharyngeal dysfunction and dysphagia. Two patients had swallowing difficulty within 1 month of surgery. These researches speculated that either the dysfunction was attributable to the peripheral nerve injury (vagus) or cerebrovascular damage during the procedure. The present study consist a total of 30 patients post carotid endarterectomy evaluated using EAT-10 swallowing screening tool within two weeks. All patients were informed regarding aim and procedure of the study and asked to mark response between 0 � 4 on a rating scale indicating no difficulty to severe difficulty and prior consent was obtained. The results revealed that individuals following carotid endarterectomy have reported oropharyngeal dysphagia. The mean scores are lesser (most difficulty) for cough while eating i.e. aspiration followed by issues in swallowing liquid and solid food. The findings from the present study important knowledge about their swallowing state, and help SLP�s to facilitate early intervention and provide the patient with the necessary resources to develop their everyday life swallowing abilities and functions.