[The physiology of swallowing].

This article reviews the sensory and the motor coordination during the oro-pharyngeal and pharyngo-esophageal stage of deglutition including laryngeal dynamics. The performance of swallowing takes less than one second. In this short period the well-coordinated action of five cranial nerves and 26 muscle-groups has to be accomplished. There is a great number of dysfunctions, that can occur during this rapid and complex motility phenomena.