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Review
. 2024 Oct;271(10):6508-6513.
doi: 10.1007/s00415-024-12657-x. Epub 2024 Aug 29.

Narrative review of diagnosis, management and treatment of dysphagia and sialorrhea in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Bogdan Bjelica  1 , Susanne Petri  2
Affiliations
Review

Narrative review of diagnosis, management and treatment of dysphagia and sialorrhea in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Bogdan Bjelica et al. J Neurol. 2024 Oct.

Abstract

The degenerative motor neuron disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) frequently leads bulbar symptoms like dysarthria, dysphagia, and sialorrhea, in approximately one-third of cases being the initial symptom. Throughout the disease, more than two-thirds of ALS patients experience dysphagia, regardless of the region of onset. In this review, we aimed to offer an updated overview of dysphagia and sialorrhea in ALS, covering its diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment in clinical practice. Regular assessment of dysphagia and sialorrhea during each patient visit is essential and should be a standard aspect of ALS care. Early discussion of potential treatments such as high-calorie diets or percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is crucial. Furthermore, this review highlights and discusses potential areas for improvement in both clinical practice and research.

Keywords: ALS; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Dysphagia; Motor neuron disease; Sialorrhea.

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Conflict of interest statement

BB received compensation for travel expenses from ITF Pharma GmbH outside of the submitted work. SP has received speaker fees, non-financial support and research support from Biogen, Roche, AL-S Pharma, Amylyx, Cytokinetics, Ferrer, ITF-Pharma, and Sanofi and served on advisory boards of Amylyx, Biogen, Roche, Zambon and ITF Pharma outside of the submitted work.

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