Pediatric Videofluoroscopic Swallow Studies: A Professional Manual With Caregiver Guidelines

Pediatric Videofluoroscopic Swallow Studies will become a standard reference for health care and educational professionals involved in the care of infants and children with feeding and swallowing problems. The VFSS, although one component of a comprehensive feeding and swallowing evaluation, is the gold standard for instrumental assessment. This manual is the first in-depth description of this specialized study that focuses directly on pediatric patients with dysphagia.Doctors Arvedson and Lefton-Greif are speech-language pathologists with extensive experience in the area of pediatric dysphagia. They set the procedural guidelines into a broad context of clinic assessment and decision making for management, while stressing the importance of a team approach for the comprehensive care of patients who are at risk for respitory problems, malnutrition, long-standing developmental concerns, and stressful child-caregiver interactions.The professional manual begins with a review of instrumental assessment procedures and an overview of the anatomy, physiology, and development of deglutition. The primary focus is the VFSS procedure which is thoroughly outlined and illustrated through case examples. Samples of documentation forms for recording VFSS results and summarizing management information are provided.The Caregiver Guidelines include handouts that can be used to educate caregivers about the process of deglutition in simple terms, provide a permanent record that reinforces technical information, and reassure caregivers that others have shared similar problems.