Intermittent oro-esophageal tube feeding in the treatment of dysphagia following surgery for primary lung cancer: A case report

Abstract

Oro-pharyngeal aspiration is an increasingly recognized complication after pulmonary resection, especially among elderly patients. We report a patient with dysphagia and aspiration who was successfully managed using an alternative nutrition method called intermittent oro-esophageal tube feeding. An 84-year-old man with no particular history of aspiration developed pneumonia five days after undergoing right upper lobectomy for primary lung cancer. Videofluorography revealed severe dysphagia with massive, silent aspiration, but no recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy was identified. Despite sustained dysphagia, the patient refused percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy placement. He was transferred to the rehabilitation hospital where oro-esophageal tube feeding was administered twice a day. He regained the capacity for total oral ingestion 7 months after the pulmonary surgery, and was discharged home without a relapse of pneumonia.