What to do if you have difficulty swallowing with pharyngitis

In case of sudden onset of acute pharyngitis, which may cause difficulty in swallowing due to severe pain in the throat, the first step is to use antiviral drugs or antimicrobials for the cause, preferably through the intravenous route, as well as appropriate rehydration to prevent worsening of symptoms due to electrolyte imbalance caused by difficulty in eating. If there is severe pain and fever, antipyretic and analgesic drugs should be used. If there is no systemic disease such as diabetes, glucocorticoids can be used appropriately to help control infection and reduce edema, and also to further restore swallowing function. For chronic pharyngitis, which does not cause obvious swallowing difficulties, it is necessary to improve laryngoscopy and esophageal-related examinations as early as possible in this case, mainly to exclude some early neoplastic lesions causing swallowing difficulties, which also need to be combined with relevant biopsies to determine the nature and decide further surgical plans based on the examination results.