The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between shapes of the epiglottis and risk of aspiration. The subjects consisted of ten normal volunteers and sixty-eight stroke patients with dysphagia. Using videofluorographic images, shapes of the epiglottis were divided into three groups, straight, curved, and closed type. The appearance ratio of types of epiglottis shape in normal volunteers was not significantly different from those in dysphasic patients. The risk of aspiration was significantly different from the types of epiglottis shape, which was the highest in the patients of curved epiglottis and lowest in those of straight-type epiglottis.
The results revealed that the shape of the epiglottis is useful to predict the risk of aspiration.
