Abstract
with a flexible laryngoscope and a probe. [Materials and methods] An endoscopic sensory test with probes was conducted in nine healthy young adults who were less than 50 years of age and nine elderly adults who were all over than 70 years of age. We developed a flexible laryngoscope with an internal port and probes with nylon monofilaments of four different diameters (0.06, 0.13, 0.20, 0.30 mm) for this study. After anesthetizing the nose with 2% lidocaine jelly, a flexible laryngoscope was then passed via the nose, while the distal tip was placed in the oropharynx. Each probe was inserted into the internal port and then the nylon monofilament attached to the probe was touched to the mucosa of the epiglottis and arytenoids. The result was judged based on both the subjective symptoms and the objective signs demonstrated by the laryngeal adductor reflex. The sense threshold was determined after inspecting the size of the nylon monofilament. [Results] Neither the young nor elderly adults showed any difference in the sense threshold according to the site of the inspection. The sense threshold was significantly high in the epiglottis in the elderly adults in comparison to the young adults (p<0.05). The subjective symptoms and objective signs were also closely corresponded to each other. In addition, no adverse events were observed. [Conclusion] We have developed and tested a relatively safe and effective sensory discrimination test consisting of a flexible laryngoscope and a probe.
