Microbiological safety of Nakamura – Fujishimas’ ice stick employed in dysphagia rehabilitation

Abstract

We read with interest the findings of Kato and colleagues’ paper entitled “Questionnaire survey on nurses and speech therapists regarding dysphagia rehabilitation in Japan”, in which these authors conducted a questionnaire survey on nurses and speech therapists regarding dysphagia rehabilitation to understand the current situation in Japan and to explore the direction of future therapeutic strategies for dysphagia patients [1]. In this survey, the authors demonstrated that the dysphagia rehabilitation technique of ice massage of the pharynx was the second most frequently employed technique, which is widely employed throughout Japan as (i) a prefeeding technique to induce dry swallowing, (ii) to stimulate swallowing apraxia for initiating the swallowing action, (iii) in daily swallowing training, as well as (iv) to promote swallowing in individuals who tend to stop swallowing during meals [1].