The Effects of VitalStim on Clinical and Research Thinking in Dysphagia

Excerpt

When VitalStim was first reported [1] and the manufacturer began “selling” products, many clinical investigators and clinicians began to question the true efficacy of the procedure in the treatment of oropharyngeal dysphagia. The data presented in the initial publication [1] were unconvincing because of the poor description of the procedure itself, the mixed use of standard therapy with the VitalStim procedure, and the use of cricopharyngeal myotomy or cricopharyngeal dilatation in many patients without any clear description of how, why, and when they were performed. In addition, the underlying neurophysiologic basis for using the procedure that involves surface electrode placement on the external lateral neck was poorly defined. …