Factors Affecting Drooling in Adult Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether drooling in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) is due to hypersalivation or cognitive dysfunction or disability. METHOD: The subjects were 24 TBI patients with drooling and 17 TBI patients without drooling and 20 unaffected healthy volunteers who had no known physical or mental disabilities. All participants had no known history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, thyroid dysfunction or chronic alcoholism. And, we excluded the subjects who take the anticholinergics, beta-agonist or steroid. Salivary pH and flow rate were compared between the TBI groups and the control group. We also measured Korean mini-mental state examination (K-MMSE) and disability rating scale (DRS) and compared mean values between TBI groups. RESULTS: There was no statistical difference in the mean salivary pH and flow rate between the tested groups. The drooling severity and frequency showed no correlation with salivary flow rate in all groups. The drooling severity and frequency showed significant correlations with K-MMSE, but not with DRS in TBI groups. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggested that the cause of drooling in patients with TBI may not be the hypersalivation and functional disability, but cognitive dysfunction.