The Characteristics Of Drooling In Cerebral Palsy And Their Relationship To Oral Dyskinesia,dysphagia And GMFCS Levels

Objective To analyze the characteristics of drooling in children with cerebral palsy by the Drooling Severity Scale, and study the relationship to oral Dyskinesia, Dysphagia and their gross motor functions.Methods The study included a sample of 100 children with cerebral palsy who had been treated in the department of neurology and rehabilitation of Qingdao Woman and Children’s Hospital from July 2013 to July 2014.They were assessed by the Drooling Severity Scale,Dysphagia Disorders Survey(DDS), Oral Motor Assessment,and Gross Motor Function Classification System(GMFCS). To analyze the characteristics of drooling in children with cerebral palsy by the Drooling Severity Scale, and study the relationship to oral Dyskinesia, Dysphagia and their gross motor functions.Results Of all 100 cerebral palsy children,32% childrens suffered with drooling,the cases of Ⅰ~Ⅴscale were 68,8,16,8 separately,And the spastic quadriplegi, dyskinetic,and the mixed children were the more severe than other substypes, the hemiplegia children not suffered with drooling,the ataxia and spastic diplegia childrens reached mild drooling, The characteristics of drooling were different among the subtypes(p<0.01).The drooling severity scale of CP children were significantly different with those of the controls( P < 001). The correlation coefficient were r=0.788、-0.764、r=0.772 seperately between the drooling witn GMFCS, oral motor score and DDS.Conclusions Both the incidence and severity of drooling were related to the cerebral palsy subtype. The severe drooling were frequently encountered on those children with spastic quadriplegic,dyskinetic, and mixed children. The other type childrens suffed with milddrooling.Children in GMFCS levels IV –V almost with problems in the pharyngeal and esophageal phases, The drooling serevity scale had positive proportion with GMFCS and DDS,and negative proportion with oral motor score.