Clinical predictors of dysphagia in patients with sepsis in a high-complexity hospital: insights for early identification.
Lorrayne Trapia de Paula, Fernanda Chiarion Sassi, Carina Escudero and 3 others
PMID 41615135WHAT IT FOUND
In 35 sepsis patients, those with swallowing problems were more likely to have had prior neurological disease, require tube feeding, and die.
Pre-existing neurological conditions and lung infections flagged high risk for dysphagia, warranting early speech therapy screening.
Key findings
01Patients with dysphagia had a significantly higher prevalence of underlying neurological diseases compared to those with functional swallowing.
02The dysphagia group showed a strong association with pulmonary sources of sepsis, with half of these patients presenting with lung infections.
03An association was identified between the presence of dysphagia and mortality, with 33.3% of the dysphagia group dying compared to none in the functional group.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was small (n = 35), limiting the generalizability of the findings. The study relied on medical records and convenience sampling, which may introduce selection and information bias. Dysphagia was assessed using clinical bedside tools only; instrumental assessments like videofluoroscopy or FEES were not used, so aspiration events could not be directly confirmed. Pre-existing dysphagia was not an exclusion criterion, so it is unclear whether swallowing difficulties were new-onset due to sepsis or related to prior conditions. The study design cannot determine causality between sepsis and dysphagia.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the association with mortality as evidence that dysphagia causes death in sepsis. The study is observational with a small sample, and the dysphagia group was clinically sicker, with more neurological comorbidities and pulmonary infections, which likely contributed to the higher mortality rate independently of swallowing function.
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 →