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Updated: May 21, 2026

Adapting Human Videofluoroscopic Swallow Study Methods to Detect and Characterize Dysphagia in Murine Disease Models
Published on: March 1, 2015
Investigation of compensatory postures with videofluoromanometry in dysphagia patients
Antonio Solazzo1, Luigi Monaco, Lucia Del Vecchio
1Department of Radiology Magrassi-Lanzara, Second University of Naples, 80138 Napoli, Italy. antoniosolazzo@hotmail.it
Aim:
To investigate the effectiveness of head compensatory postures to ensure safe oropharyngeal transit.
Methods:
A total of 321 dysphagia patients were enrolled and assessed with videofluoromanometry (VFM). The dysphagia patients were classified as follows: safe transit; penetration without aspiration; aspiration before, during or after swallowing; multiple aspirations and no transit. The patients with aspiration or no transit were tested with VFM to determine whether compensatory postures could correct their swallowing disorder.
Results:
VFM revealed penetration without aspiration in 71 patients (22.1%); aspiration before swallowing in 17 patients (5.3%); aspiration during swallowing in 32 patients (10%); aspiration after swallowing in 21 patients (6.5%); multiple aspirations in six patients (1.9%); no transit in five patients (1.6%); and safe transit in 169 patients (52.6%). Compensatory postures guaranteed a safe transit in 66/75 (88%) patients with aspiration or no transit. A chin-down posture achieved a safe swallow in 42/75 (56%) patients, a head-turned posture in 19/75 (25.3%) and a hyperextended head posture in 5/75 (6.7%). The compensatory postures were not effective in 9/75 (12%) cases.
Conclusion:
VFM allows the speech-language the-rapist to choose the most effective compensatory posture without a trial-and-error process and check the effectiveness of the posture.
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