Oropharyngeal dysphagia in a case of Huntington’s disease

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze dysphagic symptoms of a patient with Huntington’s disease (HD) who had having difficulty in swallowing. The patient was a 66-year-old female with HD. Inspection of self-feeding at bedside and videofluorographic swallowing assessment were performed. The features at self-feeding were the tendency of rapid eating, inability for smooth transportation of food to oral cavity, weak lip closure, which resulted in falling of food and eating it again. The videofluorography indicated clumsy tongue movement and postural instability by chorea which caused discoordination between oral and pharyngeal stage. Those ended in spill of liquid to the pharynx and retention of bolus in the oral cavity and vallecula, and aspiration did not occur. Pudding was carefully chewed because of the patient’s alertness to the examination. The cognitive disturbance and choreic movement caused dysphagia at the preparatory and oral stages, and chorea also produced the discoordication between the oral and pharyngeal stage. The change of the shape of cups and stable posture were advised to lessen the chance of her aspiration.