Somatic and Ear Acupuncture for Dysphagia Rehabilitation and Decannulation After Severe Acquired Brain Injuries

Launched by FONDAZIONE DON CARLO GNOCCHI ONLUS · Mar 20, 2025

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

On admission to the Intensive Rehabilitation Unit (IRU), patients with severe Acquired Brain Injury (sABI) often present with severe dysphagia (incidence up to 93%) and require a tracheal cannula (50-70%). During this intensive rehabilitation phase, the restoration of oral feeding and decannulation are two crucial and closely linked objectives. Studies have shown that the inability to manage saliva and dysphagia represents the main obstacle to decannulation, even in the long term.

Due to the extreme heterogeneity of patients with sABI and the lack of guidelines and consensus on the modalit...

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Diagnosis of severe Acquired Brain Injury with vascular etiology (ischemic or hemorrhagic), confirmed by Computerized Tomography or Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
• • Time between acute event and enrollment: 1 to 3 months. Age \>18 years. Presence of a tracheal cannula upon admission to the Intensive Rehabilitation Unit.
• • Level of Cognitive Functioning (LCF) \< or = 4. Informed consent signed by the patient's legal representative.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Instability of general clinical conditions, including mechanical ventilation, sedation, sepsis or sub-emergent epileptic seizures.
• • Patients in Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome (UWS), according to the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R).
• • Known agoraphobia.