Dysphagia therapy
Many of our clients with neurological diseases or clients in a vegetative state suffer from neurogenic dysphagia (swallowing disorder). We take feeding disorders very seriously.
At the beginning of your neurological rehabilitation we perform a detailed logopedic examination of the swallowing function. We observe the patient’s manner to swallow and examine the general swallowing function parameters to establish a diagnosis of dysphagia. This diagnosis reveals whether the patient is able to orally take in food and fluids.
Many of our clients get their nutrition from a PEG tube. In many cases the clients have not been able to orally take in food for years. If the swallowing function is partially intact, we start an intensive functional and compensatory dysphagia therapy which consists of carefully feeding the patient with a partial amount of nutrition. The feeding takes place regularly during the meals and under logopedic supervision.
Our restaurant chef is specially trained and experienced to spume and prepare special meals with high quality ingredients for different diet levels. This enables us to practice with our clients in the way they need it.
As soon as the patients make progress, we start to increase oral food intake and reduce tube feeding step by step. As a result, many of our clients are able to eat and drink without PEG tube after several treatments at our rehabilitation center.
One of these patients is a 25-year old client who was in a vegetative state after traumatic brain injury. After seven years of training at our house, he was able to orally take in nutrition and showed a poor but partially preserved swallowing function. Today the client can orally take in small amounts of mashed food under supervision of our therapists.