The Articulation Handicap Scale with 12 items (AHS-12): a short form of the Articulation Handicap Index (AHI)

[Outcome of Phoniatric Rehabilitation of Dysphagia in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer]

Surgical and nonsurgical management options for head and neck cancer frequently lead to impaired swallowing. Swallowing outcome can be assessed using subjective measures like inventories or applying clinical assessments concerning food selection, eating duration or the necessity of a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) and instrumental assessments like fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES).The objective of this study was to investigate the outcomes of an in-patient rehabilitation in patients with dysphagia after the treatment of head and neck cancer. At the begin and after completion of this treatment 219 participants (138 male) aged 62.8 ± 10.2 years completed the German version of the Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10). Integrating anamnestic and clinical assessment data a rating following the Bogenhausener Dysphagiescore (BODS) was conducted at both times.Swallowing function improved significantly in both assessments, but both parameters were only moderately correlated. Improvements in both parameters were not correlated.Both dimensions of dysphagia, expert assessment and subjective measures should be used complementary.