Esophageal Dysphagia Part 2: Esophageal Disorders and Their Management

Video Runtime: 44 Minutes; Learning Assessment Time: 26 Minutes

This course is Part 2 of a five-lecture series designed to assist clinicians in becoming informed dysphagia team members, allowing them to engage with gastroenterologists who evaluate and treat esophageal dysfunction leading to dysphagia. Because dysphagia management has traditionally been dichotomized into oropharyngeal and esophageal phases, professional education has been discipline-specific, with little emphasis on the esophageal aspects of swallowing in speech-language pathology (SLP) training.

This course content should aid clinicians in classifying esophageal disorders into structural or motor etiologies. Clinicians will develop a working knowledge of medical management strategies for esophageal dysphagia and related diseases. In a health system that values accurate and timely assessment and treatment, SLPs can play a vital collaborative role in the diagnosis and management of esophageal disorders.

Learning Objectives

• Organize esophageal disorders into structural or motor etiologies
• Discriminate various esophageal diseases based on clinical presentation and instrumental findings
• Link common medical and surgical treatment options to various esophageal disorders leading to dysphagia
• Integrate clinical and instrumental findings in a case study to formulate a diagnosis and a plan of care and report outcomes for an individual with esophageal dysphagia