The application of 3-Ounce-Water wallow Test on The Dysphagic Patients

Abstract

Introduction: Dysphagia is a dysfunction of swallowing process that prevents the optimal transfer of food and fluid from the mouth to the stomach and may give rise to life-threatening complications such as dehydration, malnutrition, and aspiration. Rapid diagnosis and management of the swallowing disorder is, therefore, mandatory and should aim at early identification of those patients. The 3 Ounce-water swallow test (WST) is a commonly used test worldwide for assessing oropharyngeal dysphagia and aspiration. However, the clinical usefulness of the test is not yet studied in our region. Objectives: To determine the value of the 3- Ounce water test as a screening tool for aspiration detection.To compare WST with instrumental tools to detect its reliability for confirmation of suspected patients. Participants and methodology:104 patients, 59 (57% %) males and 45 (43%) females (mean age = 59.68±14 years), were included in the study. Most of the patients, 44 (42%) admitted to the hospital because of Cerebrovascular accidents with a duration of dysphagia of 14±7 days. Other causes of admission include Recurrent aspiration (10%), Traumatic brain injury (9%), Multi-organ failure (8%), Cardiac causes (6%), Head and neck cancer (4%), and Other causes (9%). All patients were subjected to full assessment, including history, examination, FEES, and WST test. Results: The use of WST on 104 adult patients of different diagnostic categories after comparing the test results to FEES results for liquid aspiration revealed: 88.5% sensitivity and 71 % specificity of the 3-ounce WST Conclusion: The water swallow test is a rapid, costless, and non-invasive screening test for detecting dysphagia. It showed fair sensitivity and specificity