effects of dysphagia therapy on swallowing dysfunction after total thyroidectomy

Introduction: swallowing disorder or dysphagia is a common complication after conventional total thyroidectomy. traditional dysphagia therapy (tdt) has long been a routine rehabilitation program for patients with dysphagia; however, there is no evidence to support the efficacy of this approach in patients with post-thyroidectomy dysphagia. regarding this, the purpose of the current study was to explore the effectiveness of tdt in swallowing dysfunction in patients suffering from post-thyroidectomy dysphagia.   materials and methods: this pilot clinical trial was conducted on 21 patients with post-thyroidectomy dysphagia. the study population was randomly assigned into two groups of tdt and control. the patients in the tdt group received 18 treatment sessions for 6 weeks, 3 times a week. the swallowing impairment score (sis-6), functional oral intake scale (fois), and persian dysphagia handicap index (p-dhi) were the outcome measures. the outcome variables were assessed at the baseline, at the end of the treatment, and after a 6-week follow-up. the main effects of time and group and their interaction effect on sis-6 and p-dhi scores were examined using repeated measures anova. in addition, the intergroup comparison in terms of the fois score was analyzed using the mann-whitney u test. the cohen’s d effect size was also measured to ascertain the effects of the treatment.   results: according to the results, the tdt group showed a significant improvement in the sis-6, fois and p-dhi scores over time (p<0.001). the results also revealed that the interaction effect of time and group was significant on sis-6 and p-dhi scores (p<0.001). in addition, effect sizes on sis-6, fois, and p-dhi scores were large in the tdt group.   conclusion: this study suggested that tdt could improve the swallowing dysfunction in the patients suffering from post-thyroidectomy dysphagia. as the results indicated, the improvements persisted 6 weeks after the end of tdt.