Effect of early rehabilitative nursing intervention for baby patients with serious viral encephalitis who had swallowing difficulty

Abstract

Objective To explore the effect of early rehabilitative nursing intervention for baby patients with serious viral encephalitis who had swallowing difficulty. Method We divided 44 baby patients into the rehabilitation group and the control group. Routine nursing measures were given to the control group and additional rehabilitative exercises were given to the rehabilitation group based on the routine measures. We evaluated the swallowing functions in both groups before nursing intervention and 20 days after it by water-swallow test and swallowing dysfunction scale. Result Symptoms were better as evaluated by water-swallow test in the rehabilitation group after rehabilitative nursing intervention compared with that before intervention (P<0.01) and that in the control group (P<0.01). Swallowing dysfunction in the rehabilitation group was better than that in the control group (P<0.01). Conclusions To give early swallowing rehabilitative exercises for baby patients with serious viral encephalitis who had swallowing difficulty could improve their swallowing function and decrease complications so as to improve their life quality. Key words: Encephalitis; Viral; Swallowing dysfunction; Rehabilitative nursing; Children