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Surface Electromyography for Dysphagia

Nancy Swigert ., M.A.,CCC

October 13, 2008

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Question

I am interested in implementing SEMG for dysphagia. First, has SEMG been FDA approved for dysphagia treatment? What units would you recommend? I would like one that can be connected to a laptop to provide a large screen for visual feedback with a variety

Answer

Surface electromyography (SEMG) has been used for decades in swallowing treatment and research (including research at NIH clinicaltrials.gov/). I couldn't find specific information on FDA-approval for its use in swallowing, but am presuming with its use by NIH that we can assume that. Several other informative articles are:

www.kaypentax.com/

www.asha.org/about/publications/

I can only tell you that we have a unit from The Prometheus Group, Pathways MR15 (an old model as we've used it for some time). It does hook to a laptop or desktop for a nice display (or can be used with only the LED display if you don't have a computer handy). Regarding convincing your administrator to spend the money, I think you find as many scholarly articles as you can, see if the improvements cited in those articles (SEMG is used for biofeedback of laryngeal elevation and effortful swallow) match the needs of your population. Consider if your patient population can participate in this therapy. Then it's a cost-benefit discussion: can you get patients off your caseload more quickly and for example, off tube feeding. These are things that would save the facility money.

Nancy Swigert, M.A., CCC/SLP, BRS-S is the Director of Speech-Language Pathology and Respiratory Care at Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington, KY. She is also Chair of the ASHA Health Care Economics Committee.


nancy swigert

Nancy Swigert ., M.A.,CCC


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