Characterizing Dysphagia: Eating Assessment Tool-10 Severity Categories After Cervical Spine Surgery

Area of Science:

• Orthopedics
• Neurosurgery
• Otolaryngology

Background:

• Postoperative dysphagia is a common complication after cervical spine surgery.
• Accurate assessment of dysphagia severity is crucial for patient management and outcome prediction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate severity categories for postoperative dysphagia.
• To assess the correlation between Eating Assessment Tool-10 (EAT-10) scores and quality-of-life patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of a multi-institutional quality registry (2003 patients).
• Categorization of patients based on EAT-10 scores: none (0-2), mild (3-4), moderate (5-15), and severe (16-40).
• Statistical analysis including Dunn test and multivariate linear regression to assess correlations between EAT-10 categories and PROMs at baseline, 3-, and 12-month follow-ups.

Main Results:

• Significant differences in Neck Disability Index and EuroQol 5-Dimension scores were observed between EAT-10 dysphagia severity categories at 3 and 12 months.
• EAT-10 severity categories independently predicted worse PROMs across all time points.
• The proposed categories demonstrated statistical validity in distinguishing dysphagia severity.

Conclusions:

• Proposed dysphagia severity categories based on EAT-10 scores: none (0-2), mild (3-4), moderate (5-15), and severe (16-40).
• The validity of these categories is supported by univariate and multivariate analyses.
• These categories provide statistical justification for integration into clinical practice for managing postoperative dysphagia.