Therapeutic exercises for affecting post-treatment swallowing in people treated for advanced-stage head and neck cancers: a Cochrane systematic review.
Head and neck cancer encompasses tumours of the upper aero-digestive tract (oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, nasal cavity, paranasal sinuses and salivary glands). There are 550,000 new cases, globally, each year, the majority of these are mucosal small cell carcinoma. Smoking, alcohol abuse and viral infection are associated with the disease. Although survival rates are improving, morbidity has correspondingly increased, specifically speech and swallowing. Dysphagia may be temporary/long term or permanent and this has implacations with food and fluid intake, social participation and psychological wellbeing. The objective of this research was to establish evidence for the effects of therapeutic swallowing exercises, undertaken before, during and/or immediately after head and neck (HNC) treatment, on swallowing
