Objectives : Dysphagia is common and severe problems of acute stroke determining the prognosis of stroke only second to mental change, and results in secondary fatal complications such as aspiration pneumonia, malnutrition, dehydration, etc. Therefore, we were to investigate the clinical characteristics of dysphagia accompanied by acute ischemic stroke. Methods : We selected subjects through clinical notes retrospectively, whose main problems included dysphagia resulted from acute stroke within 72 hours from onset who were admitted to the Internal Medicine Department of Wonkwang Oriental Medicine Hospital from Jan. 2000 to Apr. 2001. We assessed the severity of dysphagia from admission to discharge using a staging method : stage 0 is normal without dysphagia, stage 1 is nearly normal except for intermittent dysphagia, stage 2 is compensated abnormal swallowing requiring adjusted diets or delayed feeding time, stage 3 is uncompensated abnormal swallowing resulted in weight loss down to 10% of initial and daily aspiration, coughing, and vomiting, stage 4 is uncompensated abnormal swallowing resulting in weight loss beyond 10% and recommended for non-oral feeding, and stage 5 is 100% non-oral feeding by L-tube, or gastrostomy or NPO state. Results : Dysphagia was improved statistically significantly from the mean stage of $3.6{pm}0.29$ on admission to $1.88{pm}0.32$ on discharge (P<0.05). On average $7.1{pm}1.48$ days were required for improving more than one stage level. As patients were older and the stage of dysphagia was worse on admission, severity of dysphagia was more difficult to improve (correlation coefficiency was 0.55 and 0.77 respectively, P<0.05). Aspiration pneumonia was complicated in 13 patients of the total 25 at mean dysphagia stage of $3.36{pm}0.37$. However, any specific values such as lesion size, lesion site, sex, age, past history and NIH Stroke Scale on admission did not affect it (P>0.05). Conclusion : Clinical course of dysphagia was determined about I week from the onset. Aspiration pneumonia was mainly complicated during oral feeding periods. If there were no improvement of dysphagia over 2-3 weeks, then non-oral feeding such as Levin tube or gastrostomy must be considered.