The Village at Marymount’s Speech Therapists Certified To Use Device To Help Residents Relearn to Swallow

Using VitalStim therapy, Bonnie McDonald carefully guides small electrical currents along Natalie Masula’s throat muscles in an effort to stimulate these muscles and allow Mrs. Masula to swallow properly.

McDonald, a speech therapist at The Village at Marymount, uses VitalStim Therapy as part of Mrs. Masula’s rehabilitation program.

The goal is to retrain Mrs. Masula’s throat muscles so that she can once again swallow naturally and without discomfort.

McDonald and speech therapist Toni Congeni recently attended a two-day training seminar in Chicago and earned certification in the use of the portable VitalStim Therapy device.

VitalStim Therapy must be prescribed by a physician and it can only be administered under the direction of certified health care professionals like Congeni and McDonald with at least three years' experience treating patients with dysphagia.

A generous donation to The Village at Marymount from Patricia A. Ipavec Clarke, on behalf of the Ipavec family and in memory of Charles F. Ipavec, USMC, a former Villa St. Joseph resident, was used to purchase the VitalStim Therapy device. 

VitalStim Therapy is the first proven treatment for dysphagia and it is proven and painless. VitaStim is the only dysphagia therapy backed by compelling clinical data and cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Congeni said. VitalStim Therapy is a noninvasive external electrical stimulation therapy that reeducates the throat muscles needed for swallowing.

VitalStim is a non-traditional neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) treatment. The device uses NMES to activate swallowing muscles through stimulation of intact peripheral motor nerves.

Congeni said any patient with a neuromuscular disorder that is appropriate for exercise therapy to strengthen the swallowing musculature and improve neuromuscular control could benefit from NMES via VitalStim therapy.

Sessions last about 60 minutes and are performed on a daily basis. Patients usually see positive results in six to 20 treatments, McDonald said.

“A patient’s speech therapy treatment goals are to strengthen weak throat muscles and to help in the recovery of swallowing motor control,” Congeni said. “VitalStim Therapy helps to do just that – and in an effective manner.”