Résumé
Following a stroke, swallowing disorders may occur. As olfaction is related to swallowing, we wish to demonstrate that a protocol of olfactory solicitations improves swallowing abilities following a sylvian stroke.Methods: we recruited 10 patients in a care and rehabilitation structure, which we divided into two groups: experimental and control. During one month, the experimental group received from olfactory solicitations with lemon. We performed a pre-protocol and post-protocol swallowing assessment. We compared the mean of the experimental group with that of the control group using the Mann Whitney test and we compared the mean at the initial evaluations with that at the final evaluations using the Wilcoxon test.Results: the findings did not show a significant effect on the inter-group comparison. Intra-group comparison showed results in favour of the protocol. Indeed, the results of the experimental group were significant: panalytical evaluation = 0.043, pfunctional evaluation = 0.027.Conclusion: the findings of this study encourage the integration of olfactory solicitations in the rehabilitation of post-stroke dysphagia, allowing the physiological improvement of swallowing and the rediscovery of the senses. Our research work should be developed further with a larger sampling and a more adapted assessment.