Lüscher colour test in orthodontic patients. Practicability for compliance assessment?

The Lüscher colour test has been repeatedly recommended as a tool for the prediction of orthodontic treatment course and patient cooperation despite its scientific shortcomings. A series of studies involving patients aged 9 to 16 years undergoing treatment with removable appliances at various orthodontic practices and at one university clinic provided no evidence of systematic correlations between Lüscher test colour preferences and cooperation with appliance wear. There was only slight consistency in colour preferences in a re-test conducted a few months after baseline measurements. Statistical evaluation of specific hypotheses and exploratory analysis of the global potential of the test provided no support for generalizable and useful correlations between colour preferences and patient compliance. Therefore the Lüscher test cannot be generally recommended for the rating of patient compliance in the clinical orthodontic practice.

Assessment of the combined orthodontic-surgical treatment from the patients' point of view. A longitudinal study.

In a longitudinal study, 40 patients who underwent a combined orthodontic-surgical treatment, were interviewed 4 weeks before operation and 1 week and/or half a year after surgery in order to evaluate patients' expectations and appraisal of the operation and their psycho-social situation. The comparisons between the patients' pre- and postoperative statements yielded the following picture: the patients showed a high degree of satisfaction with the result of the operation. They judged their postoperative facial appearance, with the help of a "semantic differential', to be significantly more attractive. Satisfaction also was expressed in a higher degree of psychological well-being and thus an increase in self-confidence and motivation. Postoperatively, the "Giessen test' showed also a distinctly positive change of the patients' mood and improved experiences with social interaction. Before the operation almost half of the patients feared sensitivity loss or disturbance. One out of 5 patients did in fact suffer from this problem--but not from pain--half a year after the operation. Some patients felt they had received insufficient prior information about the procedure and the risk of the operation. In spite of all burdens for the patients, the assessment of the result of the operation is (generally) positive, not only from the medical point of view.

Subjective appraisal of orthodontic practices. An investigation into perceived practice characteristics associated with patient and parent treatment satisfaction.

Based on a comprehensive in-practice questionnaire survey among 254 school-age patients and their parents, the subjective perception and evaluation of orthodontic care was investigated. By means of refined statistical analysis, three types of practice showing significantly distinct image profiles were identified. Likewise, the set of discriminating variables was reduced and assigned to the fundamental concepts of 'interpersonal satisfaction' and 'perceived efficacy' which appeared to play a crucial part in the crystallization of both patients' and parents' contentedness with the treatment received. To take account of the interdependence of instrumental and social factors, a model of perceived practice similarity is suggested; its significance regarding treatment decisions and future research efforts is pointed out.

[Age structure, lethality and expenditure of an internist intensive care ward. Prospective studies (author's transl)]. / Altersstruktur, Letalität und Kostenaufwand einer internistischen Intensivpflegestation. Prospektive Untersuchungen.

The total mortality for 1977 of 706 prospectively examined patients with an average age of 68 in an intensive care ward was 15%. 42% of the patients were 70 years old with a lethality of 19%, which was not essentially higher than the 51 to 70 year-old patients with 16%. In 139 patients with a recent myocardial infarction the lethality was 20%. Infarct patients over 70 years old died in 27%, between 51 and 70 years old in 17% and under 51 years of age in 7% of cases. Resuscitation measures were essential in 93 cases and led to a lasting success in 25%.