Evan's blue dye test for detection of aspiration in tracheostomized patients.

OBJECTIVES: This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (diagnostic). The objectives are as follows: To determine the accuracy of Evan's blue dye test (EBDT) and modified Evan's blue dye test (MEBDT) for detecting respiratory aspiration in tracheostomized patients. This could be useful for detecting patients ready to undergo decannulation and for deciding the feeding mode for patients in low-resource settings. Secondary objectives To investigate potential sources of heterogeneity due to different dyeing sources and reference standards.