My mother aged 85 suffered a stroke on 21 march and now she is not able to speak n swallow. She is put on nasal food pipe sine last 1 month. She is left paralyzed since last 6 year s. Now she is facing excess mucus problem n difficult in breathing. Kindly advise to respite the problem n also change time of nasal food pipe? Is there any treatment for speech n swallow problem? She is taking telma 40 ,aspirin, mucinac,amlip 10, atorva 40.

Dr. Gautham GundaboluNeurologistyrs exp

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Dear lybrate-user thakur, I am really sorry to hear about your mother's condition. Dysphagia (difficulty in swallowing) and dysarthria (difficulty in uttering words clearly/ speaking) are two most common complaints in post stroke patients. Recovery from the symptoms may depend on many factors predominantly like -the location of stroke, age and the amount of tissue lost and many more. Nasogastric tubes are predominantly used not only to give these patients adequate nutrition but also to avoid droplets of food into their lungs called as micro-aspirations ,as swallowing muscles would be still weak in these patients. Timing to remove the nasogastric tube is usually decided by the treating neurologist after assessing the improvement of the patient (usually done after a swallowing test and looking at the level of sensorium) .otherwise ngt can be changed once in 10-14 days if kept clean and tidy. Hope this helps.  

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