Table 5.

Percent of oropharyngeal swallowing disorders observed in the 21 patients with head and neck cancer treated with radiation only at pretreatment (baseline) and 3 and 12 mo posttreatment.

	Baseline, %	Posttreatment		Overall p value by Cochran's Q	Pairwise p value
		3 mo, %	12 mo, %		Baseline vs 3 mo	Baseline vs 12 mo	3 vs 12 mo
Description of disorder
Reduced tongue base retraction	83	83	83	.99	.99	.99	.99
Reduced tongue strength	67	50	50	.56	.41	.16	.99
Delayed pharyngeal swallow	42	58	33	.31	.32	.56	.18
Slowed/delayed vestibule closure	33	58	50	.25	.08	.32	.56
Reduced tongue control	50	58	42	No test	.32	.56	.16
Reduced A-P tongue movement	17	50	50	.17	.10	.10	.99
Reduced laryngeal elevation	8	17	25	.61	.56	.32	.65
Reduced tongue stabilization	17	17	25	No test	No test	.65	.65
Bilateral pharyngeal weakness	17	0	8	.37	No test	.56	No test
Reduced cricopharyngeal opening	17	0	8	.37	No test	.56	No test
Visible cricopharyngeal bar	25	33	41	.47	.32	.32	.56
Incomplete laryngeal vestibule closure	8	0	16	.37	No test	.56	No test
Other measures of swallowing
Functional swallow	100	92	100.0	No test	No test	No test	No test
% Oral intake <50%	0	8	0	.37	No test	No test	No test
% Normal diet	92	67	75	No test	.083	.083	.99
Mean saliva weight (in grams)	6.14	5.71	4.40	.59	.86	.37	.51
SEM	1.65	1.73	0.88

Abbreviations: SEM, standard error of the mean; A-P, anterior-posterior.

Note: Bolded values indicate p < .05 for overall test or p < .017 for pairwise test. (“No test” means frequencies were too low to perform a statistical test).