151751-Najiba-Chargi

326 CHAPTER 17 SWALLOWING OUTCOMES Swallowing outcomes are presented in figure 3a and table 2. Swallowing problems increased significantly from t 0 to t 1 and decreased afterwards although not returning to baseline. This was also true for the percentage of patients who needed amodified diet (FOIS < 7), themedian total SWAL-QOL score, as well as for most subscales of the SWAL-QOL. Respectively 2 (2%), 6 (6%) and 0 patients (0%) were feeding tube dependent at t 0, t 1 and t 2. At t 0, 4 patients (4%) had suffered froma pneumonia in the six months prior to the assessment. At t 1, this concerned 3 patients (3%), of whom one also had a pneumonia before t 0. At t 2, this concerned 3 patients (4%), none of whom had suffered from a pneumonia before t 0 or t 1. Swallowing outcomes stratified by treatment modality are presented in figure 4a and appendix 3. Patients treated with cisplatin-based RT+ more often had a modified diet (FOIS < 7) at t 0, t 1 and t 2 compared to patients treated with RT only. In patients treated with RT+ (cisplatin and cetuximab), post-treatment SWAL-QOL scores were higher than in patients treated with RT only, indicating more swallowing related problems. Figure 3. Percentage of patients with subjective and objective functional limitations at t0, t1 and t. Abbreviations: SHI = speech handicap index, VSA = vowel space area. Table 2. Swallowing outcomes at t0, t1 and t2. P values shown for Friedman testa, Cochran’s Q testb, Wilcoxon signed rank testc or McNemar testd, ↑ indicatingmore problems and ↓ indicating less problems. Total P value t 0, t 1, t 2 P value t 0 to t 1 P value t 1 to t 2 P value t 0 to t 2 t 0 n = 108 t 1 n = 99 t 2 n = 71 Observer-rated outcome FOIS 7 89 (82) 65 (66) 53 (75) .012 a .195 c .499 c .043 c ↑ 6 8 (7) 24 (25) 14 (20) 5 7 (7) 4 (4) 3 (4) 4 2 (2) 1 (1) 1 (1) 3 2 (2) 4 (4) 0 (0) 2 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 1 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) Unknown 0 1 0