Table 4 Management of oropharyngeal dysphagia

	Non-specialised units N = 152	%	Specialised units N = 30	%
Identification of dysphagia
Coughing or choking	110	72.4	25	83.3
Food suctioned from tracheostomy	104	68.4	26	86.7
Aspiration pneumonia	102	67.1	26	86.7
Patient complaint of dysphagia	83	54.6	21	70
Wet voice	69	45.4	21	70
Intra-oral food residue	70	46.1	18	60
Dropping O2 saturations	68	44.7	19	63.3
Spiking pyrexia	35	23	14	46.7
Patient complaint of throat pain	18	11.8	8	26.7
Dysphagia not expected	3	2	1	3.3
Other	6	3.9	0	0
Swallow screening
Saliva	71	46.7	17	56.7
Water	73	48	14	46.7
Thickened fluids	52	34.2	8	26.7
Blue dye	51	33.6	8	26.7
Yoghurt	44	28.9	10	33.3
Speaking	27	17.8	5	16.7
Other	17	11.2	5	16.7
Don’t know	4	2.6	3	10
Instrumental assessment
BSE	99	65.1	23	76.7
FEES	37	24.3	14	46.7
VFS	29	19.1	12	40
ENT Flexible nasendoscopy	9	5.9	2	6.7
Don’t know	9	5.9	0	0
Eat and drink with cuff inflated
Sometimes	64	42.1	11	36.7
No^a	22	14.5	12	40
Yes	18	11.8	0	0
Don’t know	5	3.3	2	6.7
Other	7	4.6	1	3.3

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