Physiology of the velopharyngeal sphincter during swallowing. Systematic review of the literature
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Keywords
Velopharyngeal sphincter, pharyngeal muscles, deglutition, physiology
Abstract
The aim of this article is to describe the functioning of the velopharyngeal sphincter (VPS) during swallowing, through a literature review. In February 2020, the electronic databases Medline, LILACS, SciELO and IBECS were retrospectively consulted, using the key words in English: “velopharyngeal sphincter” or “pharyngeal muscles”. Original articles were se- lected that describe the physiology of VPS in healthy adult swallowing. For this study it was created a protocol that includes the following items: author, year, country, number and characteristics of the participants, evaluated activities, methodologies and instruments used, and main results. 4124 articles were found. 3,863 were excluded after reading the titles, 239 after reading the abstracts and 8 after reviewing the full texts. Finally, 14 articles were analyzed in this review. Spatial and temporal events of the VPS, the electromyographic activity of the VPS musculature, and velopharyngeal pressure during swallowing in healthy adults are discussed. We conclude that the velopharyngeal sphincter plays an important role in the pharyngeal phase of swallowing, which should be studied in depth in future research.
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