Causes And Risk Factors For Aspiration

Dysphagia

An individual who experiences dysphagia may also be affected by aspiration due to their impaired ability to swallow food and liquid effectively. Dysphagia is the medical term utilized to describe when an individual is unable to swallow at all or has a limited ability to move food or liquid into their esophagus without it moving into their lungs. An individual affected by dysphagia will experience symptoms like coughing, choking, a sensation that food is stuck in the throat, persistent drooling, and food coming up through the nose. Dysphagia can occur due to stroke, dementia, head injury, esophageal cancer, mouth cancer, gastroesophageal reflux disease, learning disability, developmental disability, and several other medical conditions. The epiglottis is the flap or membrane of tissue that moves over the opening of the windpipe when an individual swallows food. Problems with swallowing can cause food to move into an individual's windpipe instead of their esophagus because the epiglottis does not coordinate properly in the process of swallowing, which causes aspiration.

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