A systematic review of the past two decades on validated bedside dysphagia assessments in acute stroke

Background - Stroke associated dysphagia can have serious consequences such as aspiration pneumonia. The Hungarian guideline on nutritional therapy for stroke patients recommends dysphagia assessment, as early screening can optimize disease outcome and hospital cost. Thus far, this may be the first study in Hungarian that has documented a systematic review about the available validated dysphagia assessments of acute stroke. Purpose - The aim of this study was to summarize the instrumentally validated bedside dysphagia screening tools for acute stroke patients, which were published in the last twenty years. Our objective was to describe the characteristics of the validation studies, examine their study design, and sample the sub-tests and the diagnostic accuracy of the assessments. Methods - A systematic research was carried out of the literature between 2001 and 2021 in eight scientific databases with search terms appropriate to our objectives. Subjects of the study - 652 articles were found and were reduced to eight. We made a comparative analysis of these. Results - The GUSS test reached a high level of sensitivity compared to the others. In our study sample, the prevalence of instrumentally confirmed dysphagia among acute stroke patients was 56.1%. Conclusion - The focus and the composition of the analyzed studies differed and posed problems such as the ambiguity of the concept of dysphagia, the difference in outcome indicators, or the timing of screening. The GUSS test, which offers domestic management, is a suitable tool for the Hungarian clinical use.