Lin F.C.¹ , Lee F.Y.² , Din X.R.³ , Leong C.P. ³

1. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, E-Da Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2. Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
3. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Clinical Case Reports, 2015, Vol. 5, No. 34   doi: 10.5376/ijccr.2015.05.0034
Received: 09 Jun., 2015    Accepted: 18 Jul., 2015    Published: 25 Aug., 2015

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Lin F.C., Lee F.Y., Din X.R. and Leong C.P., 2015, Post-surgical Swallowing Rehabilitation Combined with Electric Stimulation to Treat Persistent Dysphagia Arising from a Large Internal Carotid Artery Aneurysm, International Journal of Clinical Case Reports, 5(34) 1-5 (doi: 10.5376/ijccr.2015.05.0034)

In this report, we describe the case of a 99-year-old woman who presented with a large extracranial internal carotid artery aneurysm (ICAA) in the left submandibular area, which manifested as progressive dysphagia. The patient underwent aneurysmectomy and reconstruction of the left internal carotid artery and left common carotid artery to the internal/external carotid artery via bypass grafting. However, persistent dysphagia remained after surgery. A therapeutic strategy was employed, combining swallowing training with transcutaneous neuromuscular electric stimulation of the swallowing muscles. The patient’s dysphagia was gradually alleviated, and she was eventually able to eat normally and continue with previous daily activities. This case study demonstrates the efficacy of this therapeutic strategy in combating persistent dysphagia arising from a giant ICAA-a finding relevant to the clinical management of patients with this disease presentation.

Carotid artery aneurysm; Dysphagia; Rehabilitation; Electric stimulation; Deglutition; Swallowing