Swallowing sounds in speech therapy practice: a critical analysis of the literature

This study aimed to investigate international scientific papers published on the subject of cervical auscultation and its use in speech therapy. The study involved a qualitative review of the literature spanning the last 10 years. Articles were selected from the PubMed database using the following keywords: cervical auscultation, swallowing and swallowing disorders. Research was included that was conducted on adult humans (over 18 years of age) and was written in English. Each citation retrieved from the database was analyzed independently by each of the study researchers to ascertain its relevance for inclusion in the study. The methodology involved formulating the research question, locating and selecting studies and critically evaluating the articles according to the precepts of the Cochrane Handbook. As a result, 35 studies were identified; 13 articles were analyzed because they allowed access to the full text and were related directly to the subject. We found that the studies were performed with groups of healthy subjects and subjects with different types of base pathology. Some studies compared the patterns found in the different groups. Some of the research sought to study the pattern of swallowing sounds with different factors - evaluator experience, the specificity and sensitivity of the method and how to improve the technique of cervical auscultation through the use of instruments other than the stethoscope. The conclusion of this critical analysis is that cervical auscultation is an important tool to be used in conjunction with other assessment methods in the routine clinical evaluation of swallowing.