Immediate effects of simple palatal augmentation prosthesis in maximum tongue pressure and swallowing functions for acute stroke patients: An observational study

Purpose: Acute stroke often leads to dysphagia. In the oral stage of dysphagia, there is a potential for immediate benefit from using a palatal augmentation prosthesis (PAP). We investigated whether our quickly fabricated, simple, and expedited version of PAP would result in an immediate improvement in swallowing function after an acute stroke. Methods: We analyzed the records of stroke patients that were hospitalized between October 2019 and March 2022 and met the following criteria: they had a rehabilitation prescription and had paralysis of facial or hypoglossal nerves and either repeated salivary swallowing test <= 2 times or modified water swallow test <= 3, they were fasting, were within 3 weeks of onset, and had a simple PAP made for them. Outcomes included with/without PAP, maximum tongue pressure, repeated salivary swallowing test, and modified water swallow test on the day after starting to wear PAP was started. In addition, within one week, a videofluoroscopic examination was performed to measure the oral transit time, pharyngeal transit time, and penetration aspiration scale. Statistical analyses were performed using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Results: Fifteen patients met the inclusion criteria and were included in this study. The mean age of the subjects was 76.9 +/- 9.0 years. The use of PAP significantly increased maximum tongue pressure (P < 0.0001*) and shortened oral transit time (P < 0.0091*). There were no significant differences among the other items. Conclusions: Simple PAP immediately increased the maximum tongue pressure and improved swallowing function during the oral stage.