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Abstract
Introduction: Dysphagia is a prevalent and life-threatening condition after an acute stroke. It causes under-nutrition, dehydration, and aspiration pneumonia. Besides, while swallowing therapy is conventional, other therapies such as electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) are being researched on how they can boost swallowing recovery. Objective: The purpose of this study was to establish the impact of EMS in conjunction with swallowing therapy and routine swallowing therapy among patients with dysphagia who had undergone acute stroke. Methods: This research involved a quasi-experimental study done at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital. Thirty-two patients who had undergone an acute stroke with dysphagia were chosen purposively into either the intervention group (n=22) or the control group (n=10). The intervention group underwent EMS treatment and routine swallowing therapy (swallowing exercises, positioning, and diet modification) for four weeks, while the control group had routine swallowing therapy alone. Evaluation of swallowing function before and at the end of four weeks was done using the Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS). Results: Highly significant improvement was observed among the intervention group participants (p < 0.001) as compared to the improvement among the control group participants (p = 0.011). Nonetheless, the Mann-Whitney U-test indicated a statistical significance between the final FOIS scores of both groups (U = 64.00; p = 0.043). In terms of their final FOIS scores, the intervention group had a mean score of 5.55 ± 1.47 while the control group had a mean score of 3.80 ± 2.25. Conclusion: From the results of this research, it can be concluded that routine swallow therapy is effective while the use of EMS yields significantly better results for swallowing function among patients with stroke-related dysphagia. Key Words: Stroke, Dysphagia, EMS, Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS).
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