Electrical Stimulation System Design for Pharyngeal Dysfunction of Stroke Patients

뇌졸중 환자의 인두기능 회복을 위한 전기자극기 설계

The purpose of this study is to design electrical stimulation system for pharyngeal dysfunction(dysphagia) in stroke patients. Pharyngeal muscle group activity is important, because contracting muscles provide the driving force at the initiation of the swallow and generate the pressure gradients necessary for bolus movement into the esophagus. Although we have many treatment methods for dysphagia, electrical stimulation system will be useful for stroke patients having dysphagia. Electrical stimulation can be divided into the body stimulation and electrodes. The body stimulation is divided again into frequency counter, time control and current measurement part. These parts are to control the current intensity, frequency and stimulating time. And they can be variable according to the patient's clinical assessment. The electrode plays a role to deliver the current from the system to the muscle. Also the position of the electrode can be variable according to the treatment method. We performed the clinical experiment with the stroke patient who has swallowing disorder. The videofluoroscopy was used for the observation. From the result of clinical experiment based on electrical stimulation, we expected that the dysfunction(in pharynx) level of the patient can be improved. However we could not have enough effectiveness of the treatment because of the number of patients, patient's adaptation and treatment period. We will design the optimized electrical stimulation system based on enough clinical experiment in the future.