Management of dysphagia by a speech language pathologist during the Covid-19 pandemic: A narrative review

Reasons for dysphagia in patients with at-risk respiratory systems duringthe COVID-19 pandemic include muscle weakness. During this time, therehabilitation program becomes a critical problem. The current narrativereview purposed to answer the question, “What is the modified management of dysphagia in patients with COVID-19 by speech-language pathologists (SLPs)?” Medline, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases were searched for information about COVID-19 and dysphagia using search terms such as “COVID-19 and dysphagia,” “speech therapy and COVID-19,” “COVID-19 and dysphagia speech and language pathologist.” As this narrative review concentrated on the intervention of dysphagia throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the reference lists of articles identified in the search were also examined, and those we considered relevant in keeping with the selected keywords were accepted. Among the 83 articles selected in the first round, 27 were considered for this review. The number of clinical or original articles fitting our criteria was very limited. The main topics in most of the published papers were dysphagia intervention, COVID-19 transmission risk, swallowing assessment and therapy in patients with COVID-19 by SLPs, dysphagia screening tools, swallowing treatments and sensory stimulation in patients with COVID-19, and swallowing exercises and maneuvers conducted by SLPs in COVID-19 cases. An instrumental evaluation of swallowing should be narrowed during the COVID-19 pandemic. SLPs should find different ways to appropriately manage patients with suspected dysphagia. Generally, dysphagia intervention should be reserved for tele-health.