Dysphagia meaning Difficulty to swallow.
To determine the cause of your swallowing problem, variety of tests are done after a thorough physical examination
Tests that your doctor or a specialist uses may include:
and Endoscopy. A thin, flexible, lighted instrument (endoscope) is passed down your throat so that your doctor can view your esophagus. Your doctor may also do a test called a fiber-optic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing which uses a small lighted tube (flexible laryngoscope) placed thru the nose. This allows your doctor to see what’s going on when you swallow.
and Barium Swallow. For this test, you drink a barium solution. The barium coats the inside of your esophagus, allowing it to show up better on X-rays. Your doctor can then see changes in the shape of your esophagus and can assess the muscular activity. Your doctor may also have you swallow solid food or a pill coated with barium to watch the muscles in your throat as you swallow or to look for subtle blockages in your esophagus that the liquid barium solution may not identify.
and Patients with chance of aspiration, a Gastrograffin swallow is done to avoid aspiration pneumonitis.
and Soft Tissue lateral neck X-ray, Chest X-ray, CT scan of the Neck and Chest to rule out foreign body, tumors etc.
and Esophageal manometry. In this test, called manometry a small tube is inserted into your esophagus and connected to a pressure recorder. This allows measurement of the muscle contractions of your esophagus as you swallow.
