Evaluating the safety of oral methylene blue during swallowing assessment: a systematic review.

What It Covers

The paper reports a study of Methylene blue (non-peptide stack partner), published as a systematic review.

Methylene blue (MB) is frequently administered during fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) to enhance visualization of pharyngeal bolus transit.

However, the safety of MB is being questioned since serious adverse events (AEs) such as hemodynamic instability, hemolysis, and serotonin syndrome were reported.

The aim of this study is a systematic analysis of the literature to obtain an evidence-based overview of AEs due to oral administration of MB and to determine its safety as a food dye during swallowing assessment.

How the Review Was Done

A systematic literature search was carried out in PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library.

Expert opinions, conference papers, sample size < 10, and animal studies were excluded.

Level of evidence of the included studies was determined.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Deglutition, Methylene Blue and Pharynx.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Adverse events, Dysphagia, Fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing and Safety.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a systematic review of Methylene blue (non-peptide stack partner).

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 9 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2021 (European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery), a journal based in Germany.

More context: the Methylene blue (non-peptide stack partner) compound page, all human trials.