• J García Aparicio, J I Herrero Herrero, A Ma Moreno Gómez, J Martínez Sotelo, E González del Valle, and Ma A Fernández de la Fuente.
• Servicio de Medicina Interna-Los Montalvos, Complejo Asistencial Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain. jgarciaa@saludcastillayleon.es
• Nutr Hosp. 2011 Sep 1; 26 (5): 933-9.

IntroductionThe oral route is the most convenient way of administering medication, although it may not be safe. Dysphagia is one of the factors rendering difficult a proper feeding and administration of medication.Objectivesto improve the administration of oral medication in patients with dysphagia by changing the pharmaceutical formulation of the principles prescribed to tolerable textures.MethodsPilot project for the application of a dysphagia protocol that included the patients admitted to the Internal Medicine Unit at Los Montalvos Center for 4 months. After detecting the suspicion of dysphagia, a dysphagia-viscosity test was applied to know the tolerated textures. Then, the pharmaceutical formulations were adapted and the manipulation instructions for the drugs were indicated for their proper administration.Results23 out of 627 admitted patients were included, with a mean age of 85 years (σ±7.4). The pathologies implicated in dysphagia were: dementia (65.2%); cerebrovascular disease (30.4%), and Parkinson's disease (4.4%). The best texture for drug intake was a "pudding" in 48.0%. 43 active ingredients were reviewed and 134 interventions were performed: in 41% of the cases, swallowing was made easier by mixing the drug with the food and in 59% water and a thickener were used. 94% of the recommendations were considered to be appropriate.Conclusionthe adaptation of the pharmaceutical formulations to the degree of dysphagia impacts on the improvement of healthcare quality by implementing safety in drug prescription and administration processes.

32 keywords...

hide…