Effects of Mendelsohn Maneuver in Dyspagia: A Literature Review

Abstract

Many serious issues, including pneumonia aspiration, and premature mortality, caused by dysphagia may
develop as a result of diseases including stroke, Parkinson’s disease (PD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), head and
neck cancers, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis. Dysphagia is under- diagnosed and under-treated,
which has a disproportionate impact on the elderly and other susceptible patient populations. The reported
prevalence of dysphagia was 42% in stroke patients, 36.9% of PD, 27–30 % of traumatic brain injury patients,
30–50% of head and neck cancer patients, 91.7 % of patients with community-acquired. Additionally, over
half of all nursing home residents, almost half of all geriatric patients, and around 30% of the elderly living in
the community have dysphagia. There are many methods to treat dysphagia cause by several conditions, such
as neuromuscular electrical stimulation, shakers exercises, postural positioning technique, lingual exercises,
and other maneuvers. Lingual exercises and other maneuvers are more effective in combination therapy on
swallowing functions in dysphagia. Mendelsohn maneuver is one of the important methods which has effects
on swallowing functions in adjunct therapy, but whether it can be used be used alone or with other treatment
methods is the aim of this review study.
Methodology: A literature review was conducted using MEDLINE, Science direct, The Web of Science, PubMed,
SPORT Discus, and Google Scholar. Terms such as dysphagia, Mendelsohn technique, swallowing dysfunctions,
and deglutition were used. Any and all scholarly works published between the years 2000 and 2023 were
considered for this analysis.
Conclusion: Mendelsohn maneuver is one of the important aspects of treatment protocol for dysphagia
patients to improve swallowing functions. It has positive effects on UES opening, laryngeal activation, hyoid
displacement, pharyngeal pressure and esophageal pressure which can helps to improve swallowing functions
in combination of treatments.