A-6 Take your time eating
Put contrast material (barium) in your mouth and let's look at the state of swallowing while you undergo fluoroscopy.
In healthy volunteers, breathing temporarily stops during swallowing. The air in the mouth quickly escapes into the nose at the rhinopharynx. You will notice that barium forcibly passes through the inlet of the esophagus and drops down into it.
After laryngectomy, the progress of swallowed barium is slow, gradually collecting in the rhinopharynx and slowly moving toward the inlet of the esophagus. More often than not, it gets caught in the innermost part of the nose. If the intake is a drink, it may flow back leak from the nose.
Old laryngectomies show an accelerated rate of swallowing, probably because the muscular movement involving swallowing has been recovered.
In the beginning, a drink or food comes into or out of the nose because of gulping or hurrying during eating.
To prevent this, form the habit of eating, in a leisurely manner, a small amount of food at a time and avoiding taking a large drink.
