Effect of Oral Menthol on the Swallow Response of Patients With Oropharyngeal Dysphagia Associated With Neurological Diseases and Aging

Oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is the most frequent digestive disorder in older people (\>70 years) and has been recently recognized as a geriatric syndrome. The main features of OD are: a high prevalence and severe complications either related with the decreased swallowing efficacy with 45% prevalence of malnutrition or due to decreased swallowing safety with 50% prevalence of aspiration pneumonia that increases hospital stay by 100% and leads to a 50% of mortality rate. However, there is no specific pharmacologic treatment for OD in older patients yet. Treatments are now evolving from compensation to active treatments aiming to restore the swallowing dysfunction and some groups have been looking for new therapeutic strategies. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the effect of administering menthol in bolus on the swallowing response in elderly and neurogenic patients with OD. In addition, this study will also assess the side effects of this pharmacological strategy.