Effects of effortful swallow on esophageal function in healthy adults

Background Treatment for esophageal dysmotility is currently limited to primarily pharmacologic intervention, which has questionable utility and frequently associated negative side effects. A potential behavioral intervention for esophageal dysmotility is the effortful oropharyngeal swallow. A previous pilot study using water perfusion manometry found an increase in distal esophageal amplitudes during effortful vs non‐effortful swallowing. The current study sought to duplicate the previous study with improvements in methodology. Methods The effects of swallow condition (effortful vs non‐effortful), sensor site, and gender on esophageal amplitude, duration, velocity, and bolus clearance were examined for 18 adults (nine males and nine females, mean age = 29.9 years) via combined solid‐state manometry and intraluminal impedance. Key Results The effortful swallow condition yielded significantly higher esophageal amplitudes across all sensor locations (P