ABSTRACT
Dysphagia means difficulty swallowing, which results in swallowed material being held up in its passage from the mouth to the stomach.
The prevalence of dysphagia in palliative care ranges from 9 to 55 per cent.1,2 In one study of 797 consecutive admissions to a large hospice, 12 per cent of patients were found to have dysphagia as a presenting complaint.3 Patients with head and neck malignancies have a much higher prevalence: in a retrospective study of 38 patients with head and neck cancer admitted to a hospice over a 3-year period, dysphagia was noted in 28 (74 per cent).4 The prevalence of dysphagia in patients with motor neurone disease is around 60 per cent.
