Phagenyx® Treatment Helps NJ Stroke Survivor Swallow Again

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A specialized team of experts at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center utilized a groundbreaking therapy to help a Manahawkin woman swallow, speak, and eat again after a debilitating stroke.

When Erika Sharples, 51, woke up in the neuro ICU, she was facing a long and uncertain road to recovery. A ruptured arteriovenous malformation (AVM), a dangerous tangle of blood vessels in her brain, had caused a severe stroke. While an endovascular surgeon at the comprehensive stroke center saved her life, she was left with dysphagia, a common and distressing difficulty with speaking and swallowing that affects up to 80 percent of stroke survivors.

Facing the prospect of a feeding tube, Erikas' speech pathologist recommended a cutting-edge treatment called Phagenyx® during her stay at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, the first hospital in New Jersey to routinely provide it for patients with dysphagia.

This therapy uses pharyngeal electrical stimulation to "retrain" the brain and restore control over the muscles and nerves essential for swallowing. The treatment is designed to address the neurological cause of dysphagia by stimulating sensory nerves in the throat, which in turn helps the brain reorganize and recover swallowing function.

How Phagenyx Helps Stroke Patients With Dysphagia
Pharyngeal electrical stimulation works by inserting a special catheter with built-in electrodes through the patient’s nose. It provides small electrical pulses to stimulate critical sensory nerves within the throat, or pharynx.

“This can reestablish communication between those nerves and the brain,” says Shabbar Danish, M.D., chair of Neurosurgery at Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at Jersey Shore University Medical Center. “The treatment lasts 10 minutes a day for at least three days and up to six days. It’s carried out by speech pathologists based on their assessment, and it’s another important tool they use to help patients regain swallowing function.”

Her team, including the medical director of the Neuro ICU, Henry Park, M.D., and a team of rehabilitation and speech pathology experts, guided Sharples through her recovery. Their quick action and access to advanced treatments like the endovascular embolization that saved her life, and the innovative Phagenyx® therapy, were crucial to her remarkable progress.

Read more about Erika’s journey and how to team at Jersey Shore helped guide her to success.

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