Pharyngeal Electrical Stimulation for Treatment of Poststroke Dysphagia: Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials

Table 1

Design characteristics of completed trials of electrical pharyngeal stimulation in patients with recent stroke and dysphagia.

Trial	Jayasekeran-1 [9]	Jayasekeran-2 [9]	Vasant [10]
Year	2010	2010	2014
Participants ()	10	28	35
Design	Dose comparison	Parallel group	Parallel group
Countries	1	1	1
Sites	1	2	3
PES sessions	1–3	3	3
Number of patients with PAS	10	28	13
Bias [11]
Random sequence	Low risk	Low risk	Low risk
Allocation sequence	Low risk	Low risk	Low risk
Blinding	High risk	High risk	High risk
Blinding of participants	Unclear risk	Unclear risk	Unclear risk
Blinding of outcome	Low risk	Low risk	Low risk
Incomplete outcome data	Low risk	High risk	High risk
Selective reporting	Low risk	Low risk	Low risk

At baseline and 2 weeks.
Equipment: All studies used a transnasal catheter (3.2 mm diameter; Gaeltec Ltd., Isle of Skye, UK); this was connected to a preamplifier (CED 1902; Cambridge Electronic Design, Cambridge, UK) with signals processed (HumBug; Quest Scientific, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) and recorded (Signal software, CED) running on a personal computer.
Funding:
Jayasekeran et al. 2010 [9]: Health Foundation, Medical Research Council.
Vasant et al. 2014 [10]: National Institutes of Health Research, Research for Patient Benefit.