Clinical Evaluation of Swallowing Disorders as a Predictor of Extubation Failure

• Patients selection, inclusion and procedure: All successive patients admitted to the medical or surgical ICU, and intubated by the orotracheal route for >6 days, will be prospectively enrolled when extubation will be decided. Patients with previous swallowing disorders, ENT surgery or chronic persistent vegetative status will not be included. All patients will have to fulfill the usual criteria for extubation. Then, before extubation, the different components of swallowing functions will be evaluated by the trained physiotherapist, using a bedside pre-extubation scale based on 3 tests: assessment of 1)- cervical, oral, labial and lingual motricity; 2)- the gag reflex; and 3)- swallowing. After extubation, the ability to cough and swallow, secretion volume, and the need for suctioning will be evaluated immediately, then at 24, 48 and 72 hours.
• Expected results : to validate a scale previously devised called " physiotherapist evaluation of the swallowing function and oropharyngeal motricity before extubation" by the mean of a multicentric study. In our hypothesis the clinical parameters studied could be predictive of extubation failure. Then, this evaluation could help the medical decision in the choice of the good time for extubation. The final objective is to lower the mortality related to extubation failure.

Inclusion criteria

• age over 18 years
• patients intubated orotracheally for over 6 days
• patients fulfilling usual medical criteria for extubation, after a successful test of spontaneous ventilation, according to the French consensus conference (2001).

Exclusion criteria

• post ENT surgery- previous swallowing disorders
• chronic vegetative status