Evidence for your Practice: Non-invasive Neurostimulation Therapies for Post-Stroke Dysphagia

Study

Chiang, C. F., Lin, M. T., Hsiao, M. Y., Yeh, Y. C., Liang, Y. C., & Wang, T. G. (2018). Comparative Efficacy of Non-invasive Neurostimulation Therapies for Acute and Subacute Post-Stroke Dysphagia: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Aim
This systemetic review investigated the effectiveness of noninvasive neurostimulation therapies in patients with poststroke dysphagia

Studies

• 19 RCTs
• Population: patients with acute and subacute poststroke dysphagia
• Intervention: neurostimulation therapies, including repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), surface neuromuscular electrical stimulation (sNMES), and pharyngeal electrical stimulation (PES)
• Primary outcome measure: swallowing function

Key Findings

• Among the 4 noninvasive neurostimulation therapies, rTMS, tDCS, and sNMES were effective for treating poststroke dysphagia as compared to placebo
• rTMS may be the most effective therapy according to probability ranking

Read article abstract here

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