How do you approach the management of older adult patients with dementia who repeatedly aspirate with oral intake but whose family/HCP may be unwilling to accept the aspiration risk associated with comfort eating?

This is a challenging situation where clinicians play a crucial role in providing education to families and caregivers. However, before we provide education, it’s important to assess the knowledge of families and caregivers around dysphagia and aspiration in persons with dementia (e.g., “What have o...

This situation requires a detailed goal of discussion with benefit-risk information clearly relayed to the surrogate decision maker if the patient does not have the capacity to make a decision. Assuming you have excluded other reversible causes of dysphagia, like esophageal stricture, uncontrolled a...