Implications of COVID‐19 in Airway and Swallowing Function

OBJECTIVE: The acute treatment and complications of the novel COVID‐19 virus have been well studied, but the implications of this novel virus for swallowing function continue to be investigated. The goal of this study is to retrospectively assess airway and swallowing outcomes for those patients who required intensive care unit(ICU)‐level care for COVID‐19 infection. STUDY DESIGN: Comparison of swallowing outcomes through diet change in COVID‐19 patients in the Ochsner‐Louisiana State University (LSU) Hospital ICU. SETTING: Ochsner‐LSU Hospital (Shreveport, Louisiana). METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed from March 2020 to May 2022 to identify patients with a primary diagnosis of COVID‐19. Variables analyzed include age, gender, length of intubation, length of ventilation, airway interventions, use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and diet prior to, during, and after hospitalization for COVID‐19 infection. RESULTS: Two hundred and seven patients fit the inclusion criteria. There was a significant difference in discharge diet between those patients who were intubated and those who were not (P = .007). Thirty percent of patients were discharged on a different diet than their baseline with patients on a nonregular diet significantly more likely to discharge to a facility (P = .043). Negative vaccine status was associated with prolonged ICU stay, prolonged duration of intubation, and prolonged duration of ventilation. CONCLUSION: COVID‐19 continues to present novel challenges with new implications and outcomes being discovered in the third year of the pandemic. Further research is necessary to determine the most effective treatment approaches with respect to optimized speech and swallow outcomes.