The effectiveness of oral placement therapy in management of sialorrhea of stroke patients

Objective To observe the therapeutic effects of oral placement therapy (OPT) on managing sialorrhea after stroke.Methods A total of 37 stroke inpatients with sialorrhea were enrolled from January 2011 to September 2013 in the authors' department for the study and divided into 2 group on the basis of the time of enrollment.The control group (n =18) received 30min of routine treatment (including such neuromuscular facilitation techniques as Bobath and Rood techniques,motor relearning program,neuromuscular electrical stimulation and ice stimulation),twice daily,and the treatment group (n =19) received 15 min of routine treatment plus 15 min of OPT,twice daily.Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment was used to evaluate the sialorrhea severity and clinical efficacy before and 1,2 and 4 weeks after initiation of treatment.Results Sialorrhea symptom was significantly improved in treatment group after 1 week (P ＜ 0.05),while no significant improvement was observed in control group (P ＞ 0.05).After 2 and 4 weeks of treatments,significant improvements of sialorrhea were noted in both groups.After 1,2 and 4weeks of treatment,the total effective rate were 63.16％,94.74％ and 94.74％,respectively,in the treatment group,versus 5.88％,61.11％ and 61.11％,respectively,in the control group.The total effective rate of the treatment group were significantly higher in the above three time-points than the control group (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Oral placement therapy can improve sialorrhea symptom after stroke more effectively than routine treatment. Key words: Oral placement therapy;  Stroke;  Sialorrhea;  Cerebrovascular accident