Case Report: fNIRS-guided rehabilitation in refractory post-traumatic dysphagia.
Xiaohan Wang, Liying Guo, Yanan Wang and 4 others
PMID 41383436WHAT IT FOUND
In a teenager with severe swallowing problems after traumatic brain injury, changing therapy after a brain-activity scan was followed by removal of feeding tube and tracheostomy by day 77.
This is a single case, not proof the scan caused recovery.
Key findings
01The fNIRS assessment was used to map cortical activation and adjust therapy, not as real-time feedback during treatment.
02After protocol adjustment, swallowing safety improved from PAS 8 to PAS 2, and oral intake improved from FOIS level I to level VI by day 77.
03The patient was weaned from the nasogastric tube and tracheostomy on day 77.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
This is a single case report, so it cannot show that fNIRS-guided therapy caused the improvement. The patient received pharmacological treatment, botulinum toxin, sensory and motor training, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, and surface electromyography biofeedback together, so the contribution of any one component cannot be separated. The authors state that fNIRS was used as an assessment tool rather than real-time feedback, despite the title suggesting fNIRS-guided therapy. There was no control group, no comparison condition and no long-term follow-up. fNIRS cannot assess deep brain structures such as the brainstem, which are important for swallowing control.
Declared interests
Financial support was received for the research and/or publication. The work was supported by the 2025 Hebei Provincial Medical Science Research Project, and the named funder is the Health Commission of Hebei Province.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that fNIRS-guided rehabilitation caused recovery. This is a single case with multiple concurrent treatments, no control group, and the authors state fNIRS was not used as real-time feedback during treatment.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →