Impact of sepsis on oropharyngeal function (London-Bromley 15/LO/1413)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The impact of sepsis on oropharyngeal function in the old and critically ill
IRAS ID
182791
Contact name
Shaheen Hamdy
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Lay Abstract:
Dysphagia is defined as abnormal swallowing. Dysphagia is a very common symptom of many types of disease including stroke. Up to 80% of stroke patients have dysphagia. Two groups of patients are at an increased risk of dysphagia. These are elderly patients and critically ill patients on intensive care units (ICU). The reason for this increased risk in these two groups is thought to be because of muscle wasting due to age and critical illness respectively. Sepsis is defined as an infection which causes wide spread changes to an individual’s physiology. Sepsis has been shown by several studies to cause skeletal muscle wasting and subsequent weakness. Muscles in the mouth and throat which are involved in swallowing are similar to skeletal muscle. However, no studies have been conducted to investigate the effect of sepsis on swallowing. I believe that sepsis causes wasting of the muscles involved with swallowing in a similar way to skeletal muscle. This will increase the risk of dysphagia. This is because not only are they composed similarly but both swallowing and skeletal muscles waste in the same way with age. I will retrospectively recruit two groups of patients with dysphagia from the speech and language therapy database over a six month period. The first group will comprise elderly patients and the second ICU patients. The aim of this study is to establish if sepsis is an independent risk factor for dysphagia.REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/1413
Date of REC Opinion
5 Aug 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion