Chin tuck against resistance exercise for dysphagia rehabilitation: A systematic review.

Background: Chin tuck against resistance (CTAR) exercise has been recently reported to be a new therapeutic exercise method that can help improve swallowing function in patients with dysphagia. However, due to the differences in exercise protocols, methods and the tools used across studies of CTAR exercise, an overall systematic review of these studies is necessary.

Objective: The present study investigated the exercise protocols, methods and tools used in various studies of CTAR exercise and summarised their findings.

Methods: We searched for studies related to CTAR exercise using electronic databases and selected nine articles for review. The articles were categorised on the basis of four criteria: study design and quality, training protocol, outcome measures and clinical effect.

Results: Four articles reported that CTAR exercise not only helped activate the suprahyoid muscle in healthy adults, but also activated the sternocleidomastoid muscle less than Shaker exercise. In addition, five articles reported that CTAR exercise was effective in improving swallowing function and oral diet stage in the pharyngeal phase, including reduction of airway aspiration in patients with dysphagia after stroke.

Conclusions: CTAR exercise more selectively activates the suprahyoid muscle and is an effective therapeutic exercise for improving swallowing function in patients with dysphagia. Because it is less strenuous than Shaker exercise, it requires less physical burden and effort, allowing greater compliance.