Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Apr 16:19:1595393.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1595393. eCollection 2025.

Swallowing function management in patients with disorders of consciousness: a scoping review

Hua Long  1   2 , Bixia Lu  3 , Qiao Tan  3 , Dongmei Dai  3 , Fengfei Zeng  1   2
Affiliations

Swallowing function management in patients with disorders of consciousness: a scoping review

Hua Long et al. Front Neurosci. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Objective: Patients with disorders of consciousness often have concurrent swallowing difficulties, although the assessment methods, interventions, and their effectiveness have not been systematically described. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive review of assessment methods and rehabilitation interventions for swallowing function in patients with disorders of consciousness.

Methods: This scoping review was performed and reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guideline. Studies that describe a screening method to examine swallowing function or assess a kind of swallowing management intervention among individuals with disorders of consciousness (DoC) were included. Following Arksey and O'Malley's five-stage framework, databases including CNKI, WangFan, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, ClinicalTrials.gov, Cochrane, Scopus, and Medline were systematically searched, from the inception of each database to June 2024. Relevant studies were extracted and analyzed. The main review question is "What has been studied about swallowing function management in patients with DoC?".

Results: Assessment methods for swallowing function in patients with disorders of consciousness primarily included clinical swallowing assessments, scale-based evaluations, and instrument-based assessments. Rehabilitation interventions for swallowing function encompassed sensory stimulation, K-point stimulation, functional oral intake therapy, oral intermittent tube feeding, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, and acupuncture therapy. Most of the included studies did not explicitly specify the timing of swallowing assessment and intervention.

Conclusion: A standardized approach for evaluating and intervening in swallowing function among patients with disorders of consciousness is notably lacking. Selecting appropriate swallowing assessment tools and devising evidence-based management plans tailored to assessment results could improve the swallowing function and patient outcomes. More high-quality designing research that compares the assessment accuracy of different evaluation methods, as well as develops personalized interventions are imperative.

Systematic review registration: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/SURBY.

Keywords: assessment; disorders of consciousness; intervention; scoping review; swallowing disorder.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Search strategy for Web of Science.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flow chart of study selection process.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Management of swallowing function in patients with DoC. FOTT, facial oral tract therapy; IOE, intermittent ora-esophageal tube feeding.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alakuijala A., Salmi T. (2016). Predicting obstructive sleep apnea with periodic snoring sound recorded at home. J. Clin. Sleep Med. 12, 953–958. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.5922, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alcan V., Zinnuroğlu M. (2023). Current developments in surface electromyography. Turk. J. Med. Sci. 53, 1019–1031. doi: 10.55730/1300-0144.5667, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arksey H., O’Malley L. (2005). Scoping studies: towards a methodological framework. Int. J. Soc. Res. Methodol. 8, 19–32. doi: 10.1080/1364557032000119616, PMID: - DOI
    1. Bérubé M., Ouellet S., Turcotte V., Gagné A., Gélinas C. (2024). Adaptation and validation of the standardized swallowing assessment tool for patients with moderate-severe traumatic brain injury and cervical spinal cord injury. J. Neurotrauma 41, 1101–1111. doi: 10.1089/neu.2022.0418, PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. Boaden E., Burnell J., Hives L., Dey P., Clegg A., Lyons M. W., et al. (2021). Screening for aspiration risk associated with dysphagia in acute stroke. Cochrane Database Syst. Rev. 10:CD012679. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD012679.pub2, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources