A systematic review was conducted to determine: the incidence of dysphagia following endotracheal intubation, the association between dysphagia and intubation time, and patient characteristics associated with dysphagia. Fourteen articles met the  inclusion criteria for the review. The studies were heterogeneous in design, swallowing assessment, and study outcome. Dysphagia frequency ranged from 3% to 62% and intubation duration from 124.8 to 346.6 mean hours. The highest dysphagia frequencies occurred following prolonged intubation and included patients across all diagnostic subtypes. All studies reviewed were limited by design and risk of bias and overall quality of the evidence was very low.
Skoretz SA, Flowers HL and Martino R. CHEST 2010; 137 (3): 665-673