Rehabilitation exercise methods for early stage of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

It is very important to improve organ function and quality of life through functional exercise. Rehabilitation exercises to prevent neck stiffness mainly focus on neck joint activities and muscle stretching exercises. These exercises should be gentle and gradual, and sudden, rapid and violent movements should be avoided.

1. Actively perform functional exercises

The treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma is mainly radiotherapy. Some patients have stiffness of the neck, mouth, pharynx, and larynx, poor coordination of movements due to local tumor invasion of nerves or soft tissue fibrosis after receiving the above treatment. Severe cases may even cause trismus, swallowing or speech difficulties. Therefore, it is very important for patients to improve organ function and quality of life through functional exercise. Rehabilitation exercises to prevent neck stiffness are mainly neck joint activities and muscle stretching exercises. These exercises should be mainly gentle and gradual, and sudden, rapid and violent movements should be avoided. The principle of neck joint exercises is to gently move the neck, such as neck flexion and backward, neck rotation from side to side, chin retraction and neck rotation. Each movement can be done 3 to 5 times, and each movement time is about 3 seconds. Please do not use too much force. The principle of neck muscle stretching exercises is to continuously and slowly pull the muscles to a slightly tight, but not painful. Such as back neck muscle stretching exercise, side neck muscle stretching exercise, oblique front neck muscle stretching exercise, oblique back neck muscle stretching exercise, etc. During functional exercise, the body needs to be relaxed, and fast bouncing movements should not be performed to avoid muscle strain. If the neck skin is red or ulcerated, muscle stretching exercises should be performed after the wound heals.

2. Improve the control of oral movements and throat closure activities

Exercises to strengthen oral movements may include oral joint movements, lip movements, mouth shape maintenance exercises, tongue movements, relaxation, and resistance exercises (please practice in front of a mirror at the beginning). In addition, you can also use foods or substitutes of various textures and shapes to train oral muscle strength and coordination. Exercises to strengthen the closure of the throat include swallowing hard to lift the throat to increase the muscle strength to close the throat, or using force to pronounce "一" and using false sounds to strengthen the muscle strength of the glottis.

3. Change your swallowing posture

Lowering the head when swallowing can prevent food from falling into the throat too early and reduce the risk of aspiration into the respiratory tract. Lifting the chin can help food move back to the throat. The purpose of turning the head to the affected side is to close the affected side and allow the food bolus to enter the esophagus through the healthy side. Leaning the head to the healthy side can help the food bolus enter the esophagus from the healthy side. Using special methods to change the natural swallowing pattern is also a way to increase swallowing safety.