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ardalon

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Joined
Jan 5, 2014
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61
Reason
PALS
Diagnosis
07/2013
Country
DE
State
Germany
City
Jossgrund
I found the following article in a German forum and translated it , however, maybe not perfect!
Diseases of the central and peripheral nervous systems such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS ) may lead to a strong flow of saliva , which often leads to swallowing and bring saliva into the trachea. A dangerous consequence is pneumonia. A targeted irradiation of the salivary glands may help to normalize the flow of saliva, emphasizes the German Society for Radiation Oncology ( DEGRO ) on the occasion of a recent French study . The DEGRO recommends therapy for people with other neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease, which is also associated with dysphagia . Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ( ALS) is a rare but very serious disease of the central and peripheral nervous system. Each year in Germany approximately one to two out of 100,000 people come down with ALS. Effects of ALS include dysphagia, when saliva quickly gets into the respiratory tract. This can lead to pneumonia, which is often fatal . More than half of all patients with ALS die from the consequences of excessive salivation , it is more often the occasion for a tracheotomy or ventilation , reports Professor Dr. Michael Baumann , director of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University Hospital Dresden and President of the German society for Radiation Oncology ( DEGRO ) . Medications or physiotherapy exercises have only a limited effect. Some doctors turn the salivary gland by injection of the nerve toxin botox . However, this treatment can be very painful, and there is the danger that the strong neurotoxin enhance the typical ALS paralysis of the facial muscles, warns the DEGRO president . Even a worsening of dysphagia is possible if the nerve toxin reaches the throat muscles.

Radiation therapy may saliva production in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , however, reduce in the long term , as a study from France proves. Our colleagues treated 50patient from a treatment center in Paris , all for years at a strong sialorrhea , and so suffered at excessive salivation ,reports DEGRO spokesman Professor Dr. Frederik Wenz , Director of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University Hospital Mannheim. To reduce the sialorrhea , doctors have limited the irradiation on the salivary glands in the lower jaw and the lower two-thirds of both parotid glands. The remaining parts of the parotid glands and two other glands below the tongue produced enough saliva after irradiation to prevent excessive dryness of the mouth, explains the DEGRO spokesman .

The irradiation was carried out with so-called linear accelerators which allow a precise irradiation with photons. In this way, the radiotherapy was limited to individual sections of the parotid gland, says Professor Wenz . Spinal cord and brain stem were , however, outside the radiation field . This is important because a loss of nerve cells in this area is the cause of ALS and damage would accelerate the disease process. The irradiation normalized salivation of 46 patients. The other four patients, showed a considerable improvement.
Radiation therapy for hypersali... [Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2014] - PubMed - NCBI

Literature:
Assouline A1, A2 Levy , Abdelnour - Mallet M3, Gonzalez- Bermejo J4 , Lenglet T5, Le Forestier N6 , Salachas F5 , G5 Bruneteau , Meininger V5 , Delanian S7 , Pradat PF8 . Radiation therapy for hypersalivation : a prospective study in 50 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients . Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2014 Mar 1 ; 88 ( 3) :589 -95.

Have a good day
Arda
 
Arda, thank you for taking the time to translate.
It was a very interesting article.
Hugs
Linda
 
Arda, ich bedanke mich!
 
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