Nutritional aspects and swallowing function of patients with Parkinson's disease.

Seven patients with Parkinson's disease and three patients with progressive supranuclear palsy underwent adrenal medullary transplant to the caudate nucleus for treatment of their neurologic disease. Preoperative nutritional assessment demonstrated that a significant number of the Parkinson's patients had mild to moderate nutritional depletion. Motility problems, manifest by dysphagia and delayed gastric emptying causing problems over a number of years, were probably responsible. Of the 10 patients studied, 6 were studied by videofluoroscopy. All patients had variable dysphagia of variable servility with or without aspiration. Etiologic factors included the basic underlying neurologic disease, delay in resumption of anti-parkinsonian medications, use of metoclopramide, and postoperative medical complications leading to a debilitated clinical state.