Feasibility of swallowing interventions for tracheostomized individuals with severely disordered consciousness following traumatic brain injury.

Primary Objective: To report the ability of 12 tracheostomized acute rehabilitation hospital inpatients with severely disordered consciousness post-traumatic brain injury (TBI) to participate in an objective swallowing assessment.

Research Design: Post hoc analysis of data from a larger, prospective blinded comparison study.

Methods And Procedures: Subjects completed a modified barium swallow (MBS) study.

Simultaneous modified barium swallow and blue dye tests: a determination of the accuracy of blue dye test aspiration findings.

The overall objective of this pilot study was to determine blue dye test reliability and validity for the identification of aspiration of secretions, food, and/or drink in 50 simultaneously administered blue dye (BDT) and modified barium swallow (MBS) tests of tracheostomized individuals. With the MBS as an objective test of aspiration, BDT sensitivity and specificity identifying aspiration were less than 80% and 62%, respectively. Certain tracheostomy tube conditions and food consistencies were associated with more accurate BDT aspiration results than others.