Clinical Decision-Making During FEES: The Impact of Residue Amount and Location

NCT07278076 · Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 60

Last updated 2026-02-20

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

In this study, the investigator aims to identify the threshold of food residue visualized in the throat during a FEES (fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing) that speech-language pathologists allow before restricting a patient from eating. 60 speech-language pathologists will be required to participate, with half of them watching a pre-recorded video detailing current research about residue in the throat of pharynx. The group watching the video will then re-score their images. This investigates the impact of education on clinical decision-making. Finally, 8 clinicians will meet with the researcher individually to share their clinical decision-making rationale. With this information, the researcher hopes to identify a patient population who is at risk for diet restrictions in order to encourage speech-language pathologists to extend the swallow study and trial more compensatory strategies before restricting the patient's diet.

Conditions

  • Decision Making

Interventions

OTHER

education

In the second aim of the study, 30 (50%) of the clinicians participating in the study will watch a 30-minute educational presentation about current research on clinical decision making and aspiration risks of pharyngeal residue after they complete the image assessment task (Specific Aim 1). Several peer-reviewed articles will be presented via video recording. These articles support several key tenets of this research study and include: 1) recommendations should be based on clinical experience and training, not evidence-based practice,8 2) the location of pharyngeal residue does not increase or decrease penetration or aspiration risk,6 and 3) a correlation, not a causation exists between the amount of pharyngeal residue and aspiration risk.14 Other studies indicated that other factors should be investigated, such as the accumulation of residue over time.14 These clinicians would then re-test.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Rush University Medical Center

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2026-11-01
Primary Completion
2027-01-01
Completion
2027-05-30

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT07278076 on ClinicalTrials.gov