Impact of Prehabilitation With Preoperative Swallowing Exercises on Postoperative Swallowing Morbidity in Oral Cavity Cancer: Randomized Controlled Trial

Oral cancer surgery and the associated reconstructive procedures cause mechanical and neurological impairment of swallowing. Despite postoperative rehabilitation, functional impairment of swallowing remains a concern. This study is to investigate the potential benefits of prehabilitation with preoperative swallowing exercises to patients undergoing composite resections and compartmental tongue resections so that it results in better swallowing outcomes and improved quality of life after surgery.

Sixty patients included in the study were randomized into an exercise and control group of 30 each. Patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity undergoing composite resection or compartmental tongue resections were included, and patients with severe trismus at presentation were excluded. Patients in the exercise group were instructed on a set of six active exercises to be followed strictly for a period of at least 1 week before surgery. Preoperative swallowing exercises comprised of evidence-based exercises targeting the muscle groups involved in swallowing. Postoperative swallowing rehabilitation was the same as that of the control group. Patients were assessed after 6 months of surgery. Outcomes were assessed both subjectively and objectively. Objective assessment was done by inexpensive, novel clinical methods of repetitive saliva swallow test (RSST), water swallow test (WST) and food swallow test (FST) to and graded using dysphagia severity scale (1–7).

Average oral intake scale (1–Oral solids, 2–Oral semisolids/easy to chew foods, 3–Oral liquids only and 4–Non-oral, orogastric tube dependent) assessed subjectively was significantly lower in exercise arm, and the control arm had a significantly higher OIS score. Exercise arm had higher number of patients in DSS scores of 5, 6 and 7. The control arm had a higher number of patients in DSS scores of 3 and 4. The differences between the two groups were found to be statistically significant taking into consideration the confounding factors of radiation, wound morbidity and tongue resections.

Preoperative swallowing exercises have shown a positive impact on postoperative swallowing ability. This is the first randomized trial to assess the effect of PSE in postoperative oral cancer patients. Our exercise protocol needs standardization, and clinical objective method of dysphagia assessment requires further validation. However, prehabilitation with PSE has the potential to improve the quality of life in oral cancer patients.