rTMS in dysphagia after stroke

Abstract

Dysphagia is a commonly documented morbidity after stroke and has been associated with an increased risk for pulmonary and nutritional complications and even mortality. The dysphagia therapy focused on compensatory and rehabilitative strategies for many years; unfortunately, there is a paucity of evidence for these methods. Recently, a new approach using noninvasive cortical stimulation which modulates cortical excitability is being applied to help the neurologic recovery after a stroke and a few studies applied repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on post-stroke dysphagia, which led to a significantly greater improvement in swallowing function. There remains uncertainty on which stimulation method (frequency, site, and amount) is best; therefore, more research should be conducted in the future. © 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.