A model of the human throat

Swallowing disorders, or dysphagia, affects 40% of the population 70+ due to factors such as degenerative diseases, side effects of medication or simply age-related impairment of physiological oropharyngeal function. The management is through thickened beverages and texture-modified foods. The increased viscosity of a beverage induces slower flow which allows sufficient time also for an age-impaired physiology to swallow safely. Another factor to avoid aspiration is to assure cohesivity of the bolus so it does not break up into droplets, which is achieved by thickening, i.e. increasing shear viscosity, but even more by increasing fluid elasticity.

Models of the human upper throat, the pharynx, where most problems of misdirected swallowing occurs, have been developed as a tool to develop foods which are easy and safe to swallow, and to study the effect of different types of swallowing disorders. Swallowing of two thickened fluids in the Gothenburg Throat Model. The left fluid is not sufficiently thickened to avoid aspiration.

The Gothenburg Throat Model can mimic all swallowing disorders of the pharynx and characterise the flow of a bolus in detail using manometry and ultrasonic velocity profiling. This means that a product developer can evaluate their fluid products or boluses of their solid food regarding flow behaviour during the most critical phase of the swallowing, the pharyngeal phase where aspiration (food going into the airways) may occur. 

A simplified, but mobile model has also been developed to be applied in food development labs. The model has the same geometry and settings but a simpler “mouth”.