Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by parkinsonism, cerebellar syndrome, and autonomic failure. Dysphagia is a clinically significant symptom leading to pneumonia that causes death in patients with MSA. Although the symptoms of dysphagia in the two subtypes of MSA-the parkinsonian variant and the cerebellar variant- are different, there is no significant difference in the latency to onset of tube feeding. Therefore, effective intervention is needed to improve the safety and efficiency of swallowing regardless of the subtypes of MSA.~Although swallowing rehabilitation has been widely applied for swallowing disorders in patients with MSA, few studies have reported the clinical effect of applying swallowing therapy. Comprehensive swallowing rehabilitation has focused on functional muscle training, compensatory swallowing maneuvers, and thermal-tactile stimulation, which is used to treat dysphagia from stroke, Parkinson's disease, and head and neck cancer. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of comprehensive swallowing rehabilitation in patients with MSA.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of comprehensive swallowing rehabilitation in patients with multiple system atrophy.