Dysphagia and dementia: disease severity and degree of dysphagia as assessed by fiberoptic endoscopy

Introduction: Quantative information about dysphagia in patients with dementive diseases is limited. Pneumonia due to aspiration is one of the major causes of death in dementia (Burns, 1992; Chouinard, 2000). Because the high prevalence of dementia and a shift towards an “older society“ exists, the problem of dysphagia and its sequelae is of great importance. Methods: To assess a hypothesized correlation of dementia severity and the grading of dysphagia, we retrospectively analysed the clinical, cognitive and videoendoscopic data of 37 patients with the main diagnosis of a dementing illness who met the inclusion…