Speech and swallowing difficulties and rehabilitation in osmotic demyelination syndrome: A single case report

Abstract

: Aim of the work was to highlight the speech and swallowing difficulties that are associated with osmotic demyelination syndrome and also the importance of speech and language therapy in patients with osmotic demyelination syndrome. In this case report, a 68 years old female who developed osmotic demyelination syndrome as a result of hyponatremia correction has been described. The patient developed motor, speech and swallowing difficulties after 10 day of hyponatremia correction. For assessing speech and language skills, Bedside Screening Test for Persons with Aphasia was used. Gugging Swallowing Screen was used for assessing the swallowing skills.: The assessment results indicated that the patient’s auditory comprehension skills were preserved and other verbal skills were affected as the patient had mutism. Also the patient had slight dysphagia with lower risk of aspiration. With speech-language intervention, improvement was observed in swallowing and verbal communication skills. ODS is a rare clinical condition. In order to have a better perspective about speech, language and swallowing skills in individuals with ODS, replication of such studies are essential.