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[Dysphagia] Dehydration and falls 2
"apdfried at juno.com" <apdfried at juno.com> wrote: I work in acute care hosp. and I'm on the Falls Committee. We have researched falls for one year & the most common cause of falls is slow response to call lights related to needing the bathroom.
*** I believe I made the point that the orthostatic hypotension involved in falling when getting out og bed is frequently the culprit. perhaps your Falls committee should look at hypovolemia/dehydration/falls as these have been identified multiple times as causing such accidents, often with lethal results. Or check the Merck Manual of Geriatrics on both falls and orthostatic hypotension.
Dehydration was not listed as a cause in any of the reports we saw. Poor falls hx was the second largest cause since most fallers are repeat offenders.
*** Indeed it is - and dehydration, among other causes, is a constant.
As far as thickening liquids goes I definitely think more is not better and for years I have told students and other ST's honey thick is as bad as no liquid at all as most people dehydrate. I'm not ready tho throw out the baby however as less thick alternatives can reduce aspiration as clearly seen on videos
*** May I refer you to Groher, Logemann and others as to the fact that VFSS never shows what happens in real life. One can never say that one intervention e.g.thickened fluids, causes anything or, more importantly, prevents anything as 1) it is scientifically impossible to prove a negative and 2) there are multiple other variables involved.
Dr I Campbell-Taylor
Clinical Neuroscientist
Exclusive Distributor:
www.interactivetherapy.com
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