Diagnosis Matters: Understanding Dysphagia Causes in Medical Conditions

Course Description

Course Description:

Dysphagia is a complicated and variable disorder with a widely diverse set of potential etiologies, including respiratory, neurological, medical and iatrogenic causes. The dysphagia clinician is often faced with a variety of patients with symptoms of swallow impairment that range in type and severity based on the underlying etiology of the dysphagia.

Dysphagia clinicians must develop management plans that reflect the most recent evidence, meet the needs of their clients, and are appropriate to the underlying etiology. Unfortunately, in the absence of diagnosis specific information, clinicians are often unable to choose interventions that are tailored to their patient's particular diagnosis and needs.

This course will provide participants with an improved understanding of how dysphagia manifests in a number of diagnoses, including stroke, respiratory disorders, dementia, head and neck and esophageal cancers, neurological disease, mental illness, post-surgical patients and in aging.  Assessment considerations specific to each diagnosis will be discussed and treatment strategies with diagnosis-specific evidence will be provided.