Current Status of Videofluoroscopic Swallowing Study Practice in Korea through Surveying Experts and Conducting Field Study / 대한연하장애학회지

ABSTRACT

Methods@#We developed a questionnaire related to VFSS protocols and test diet. It was sent to the expert physicians who directly implementing VFSS in 35 training hospitals, which were sent out and collected by e-mail from December 7, 2017 to February 19, 2018. Among them, 12 out of 28 hospitals selected randomly and we conducted field survey including observing the process of the VFSS. @*Results@#The most common protocol was to provide a test sample with 7 stages (28.1%). In the order of provided test samples, ‘the small amount of liquid’ was the most provided in the 1st stage (53.1%). Among the used samples of thin liquid level, the mixing ratio of the liquid samples and barium was not uniform among each institution. ‘Yogurt (semi-solid type)’ was the most commonly used sample for ‘nectar thick’ and ‘honey thick’ diet. Various samples were used on ‘pudding thick’ diet. @*Conclusion@#These results indicate that, in the 32 Korean general hospitals, each hospital uses samples depending on experience or according to its own standards rather than unified standard among the institutions. Thus, the protocols for each hospital are not standardized, which make them difficult to the accurate sharing of information about the test results. Therefore, it will be necessary to make a consensus for the protocol and establish nationwide standard of VFSS through future research