LewisGale Medical Center First in Virginia to Introduce New Treatment for Patients with Swallowing Disorders

An innovative therapy being offered at LewisGale Medical Center to patients suffering from a swallowing disorder called dysphagia is resulting in dramatic improvements in lifestyle, as well as significant cost savings compared to traditional treatments. LewisGale Medical Center is the first healthcare provider in Virginia to offer VitalStim™ Therapy, a non-invasive, painless treatment that uses controlled neuromuscular electrical stimulation to strengthen the muscles of the throat used in swallowing. The treatment, the only one of its kind approved to market by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is prescribed by a doctor and administered by a speech-language pathologist or physical therapist who has received training and certification in VitalStim Therapy.

The new therapy incorporates a specialized neuromuscular electrical stimulation system and uniquely designed surface electrodes to stimulate inactive swallowing musculature commonly found in patients with dysphagia. Using VitalStim to activate key swallowing muscles allows clinicians to implement an active regimen of therapy to create or re-learn functional muscle use patterns necessary to initiate or re-establish swallowing.

Dysphagia is the medical term for any difficulty or discomfort in swallowing. It is typically a secondary complication from many conditions including stroke, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, mouth or throat cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS), and several other degenerative and muscular conditions. Dysphagia is a growing medical problem, with an estimated 15 million people in the United States alone having a current diagnosis of dysphagia. “One in 17 people develop some form of swallowing disorder in their lifetime,” states Sarah Hech, speech pathologist at LewisGale Medical Center’s Outpatient Rehabilitation Department. “Nearly 75 percent of stroke survivors develop some form of dysphagia, and approximately 60,000 people die each year as a result of complications from this disorder.”

“Prior to VitalStim Therapy, traditional methods to treat dysphagia provided limited degrees of success. These included conventional speech therapy, patient education, swallowing maneuvers, and diet modification such as cutting food into small mouthfuls, thickening liquids, or pureeing food to make it pass more easily down the throat. The disorder must often be managed medically through the use of a percutaneous endoscope gastronomy (PEG) ‘feeding’ tube,” states Elizabeth Lawryszek, PT, assistant director of LewisGale Rehabilitation Services. “With VitalStim Therapy, we are seeing patients with dramatic improvements – eliminating the need for a feeding tube -- in six to 20 daily sessions and sometimes in as few as three days.”

The Chattanooga Group, a division of Encore Medical Corporation and manufacturer of the VitalStim unit and electrodes, reported from clinical trials that managing PEG tube treatment of all people with stroke- related dysphagia and its complications costs between $2.5 and $4.9 billion annually or $31,832 per patient. By comparison, patients treated with VitalStim Therapy required an average of 14 sessions to achieve desired results for a total cost of $2,532.

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