Comprehensive Management of Swallowing Disorders

Now re-issued in paperback. Truly comprehensive: described as one of the critical references for the field. Multidisciplinary approach with needs of seven different disciplines taken into consideration. First published in hardback in 1999, this classic work on swallowing is reissued by Plural in paperback. It remains as current now as when first published, focusing particularly on giving a solid grounding in the anatomy and physiology of the normal swallow and covering the subject from a multitude of perspectives. Little wonder then, that in his new foreword, John C. Rosenbek, Ph.D, Professor and Chair, Department of Communicative Disorders, University of Florida, describes it thus: "Scientific and clinical activities in dysphagia are among the fastest growing in healthcare. Speech-language pathologists, physicians, surgeons, nurses, dietitians, dentists, occupation and physical therapists, physiologists, and social workers are among the professionals doing the work. The highest levels of research and clinical productivity in dysphagia require responsible scholarship, the ability to cope with ambiguity, respect for interdisciplinary cooperation, and a recognition that dysphagia's effects on people extend well beyond mealtime. Comprehensive Management of Swallowing Disorders, edited by Ricardo L. Carrau, M.D., and Thomas Murry, Ph.D., is as perfect a contribution to the field as can be imagined. It contains 55 chapters; authors are drawn from all the major professions presently involved in dysphagia, and each profession's perspective is clearly outlined. The field's entire content is represented: normal and abnormal swallowing; child and adult; oropharynx and esophagus; structural and functional etiologies; prognosis; evaluation and treatment; surgical, medical, and behavioral management; rehabilitation and compensation. General books risk being a mile wide and a foot deep. Not so this book. The reader is not limited to wading; immersion is possible even for the experienced practitioner. Myotomy, vocal fold augmentation and medialization, Nissen fundoplication, Zenker's diverticulectomy, and gastrostomy are among the surgical procedures included in chapter-length discussions. The array of etiologies and medical and behavioral evaluations and treatments are equally grand. Dysphagic patients are usually not well served by a practitioner with only one or a severely limited number of explanatory, evaluation, or treatment approaches. The contributors to this book obviously serve their patients well. Careful readers will be able to do the same. And there is enough new information in this book so that even...