Swallowing and Breathing Relationship: General Knowledge

There is a close association between swallowing and breathing. Both swallowing and breathing are regulated by the similar oromotor CPGs that are in the close proximity in the same brain region. They also use similar neural pathways and similar oral-pharyngeal structures. These features generate an obligatory coordination between swallowing and breathing. Swallowing and breathing coordination begin to build up with sucking in newborns. Uzm. Dkt., Eski？ehir Bir ？nci ？zel E？itim ve Rehabilitasyon Merkezi, [email protected] derleme, say？n Hocam Do？. Dr. Müzeyyen ？i？iltepe’nin dersinde asistanl？k yapabilme ？ans？ndan do？du？u i？in kendisine ve CPGs konusundaki geri d？nütü i？in Sema Karabulut’a te？ekkürü bir bor？ bilirim. Generally used swallowing-breathing pattern after 1 year of age develops into breath out-swallow-breath out or breath in-swallow-breath out patterns. The dominant swallowing pattern established in adults is breath outswallow-breath out pattern which is seen close to 100%. This swallowing-breathing pattern is considered to have certain advantageous over other patterns such as decreasing the aspiration-penetration risk to a minimum during swallowing. Relying on the close relation between swallowing and breathing, it’s assumed that a breathing disorder can interrupt swallowing-breathing coordination and consequently swallowing could be disturbed. Supraglottic and super-supraglottic swallowing maneuvers used in deglutition disorders are exclusively depending on the swallowing-breathing relation and requiring a breathing out after the swallow. This review is consisted of 3 sections. CPGs are explained in the first section. CPGs are the neural mechanisms regulating swallowing-breathing relation and also other rhytmic events such as chewing, walking, running, swimming. Oromotor CPGs are a group of CPGs that regulate breathing, sucking, chewing, swallowing and coughing. Sucking is considered as an important biomarker for the development of other oromotor events. Oromotor CPGs are localized in the brain stem and receive feedback from the central and peripheral nervous systems. The second section is about the development of swallowing-breathing mechanism so that swallowing-breathing mechanism of newborns and infants are reviewed. Swallowing-breathing relation must be healthy for newborns and infants, otherwise serious health problems such as recurrent aspiration pneumonia could come out. There are various swallowing-breathing patterns seen in newborns and infants. Several of these swallowing-breathing patterns are assumed to be pathological. For