| 1. |
- Johnson, Joakim, et al.
(författare)
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Development and validation of the Gothenburg Trismus Questionnaire (GTQ).
- 2012
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Ingår i: Oral oncology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1368-8375. ; 48:8, s. 730-736
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: To develop and validate a comprehensive, self-administered questionnaire for patients with limited ability to open the mouth, trismus. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We derived the Gothenburg Trismus Questionnaire (GTQ) from empirical evidence in the medical literature and interviews with medical experts as well as patients. The draft version was tested in a pilot study (n=18). Patients with a maximal incisal opening (MIO) of ⩽35mm were included. The study comprised patients with benign jaw-related conditions (n=51), patients treated for head and neck (H&N) cancer (n=78) and an age- and gender-matched control group without trismus (n=129). RESULTS: The GTQ instrument was well accepted by the patients, with satisfactory compliance and low rates of missing items. After item reduction, due to items not being conceptually relevant and/or low factor loadings, the GTQ demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.72-0.90), good construct validity and known-group validity. CONCLUSION: We developed a trismus-specific self-administered questionnaire, the GTQ, that showed good psychometric properties. We suggest this questionnaire, that has clear clinical relevance, to be adopted and used in clinical practice and in research, acting as a screening tool as well as an endpoint in intervention and jaw physiotherapy/rehabilitation studies.
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| 2. |
- Pauli, Nina, et al.
(författare)
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Exercise intervention for the treatment of trismus in head and neck cancer.
- 2014
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Ingår i: Acta oncologica (Stockholm, Sweden). - 1651-226X. ; 53:4, s. 502-509
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of structured exercise with jaw mobilizing devices on trismus and its effect on trismus symptomatology and health-related quality of life (HRQL) in head and neck (H&N) cancer patients. Material and methods. Fifty patients with H&N cancer and trismus, i.e. maximum interincisal opening (MIO) ≤ 35 mm participated in a structured intervention program with jaw exercise. The patients in the intervention group underwent a 10-week exercise program with regular follow-up. A control group comprising of 50 patients with trismus and H&N cancer were matched to the intervention group according to gender, tumor location, tumor stage, comorbidity and age. HRQL and trismus-related symptoms were assessed. Results. The mean MIO improvement was 6.4 mm (4.8-8.0) and 0.7 (-0.3-1.7) mm in the intervention group and control group respectively, three months post-intervention commencement (p < 0.001). The intervention group demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in Role functioning, Social functioning and Global quality of life (EORTC QLQ C30) and in all Gothenburg Trismus Questionnaire (GTQ) domains, i.e. jaw-related problems (p < 0.001), eating limitation (p < 0.05) and muscular tension (p < 0.001). Conclusion. We found that a structured jaw exercise program was effective and improved the mouth opening capacity significantly. The objective effect on trismus (MIO) was also reflected in the patient-reported outcome questionnaires where the patients who underwent the structured exercise program after cancer treatment reported improvements in HRQL and less trismus-related symptoms compared to the control group.
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| 3. |
- Pauli, Nina, et al.
(författare)
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The incidence of trismus and long-term impact on health-related quality of life in patients with head and neck cancer.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Acta oncologica (Stockholm, Sweden). - 1651-226X. ; 52:6, s. 1137-1145
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background. Trismus is a common symptom related to the treatment of head and neck (H&N) cancer. To date there are few prospective studies regarding the incidence of trismus and the patients' experience of trismus in daily life activities. The aim of the study was to assess the incidence of trismus in H&N cancer patients and the impact on health-related quality of life (HRQL), by evaluating the patients before and after oncological treatment. Material and methods. We used the criteria for trismus of maximum interincisal opening (MIO) ≤ 35 mm and measured the patients at several occasions before and after treatment during one year. The patients answered the HRQL questionnaires EORTC QLQ C30, EORTC QLQ H&N 35, Gothenburg Trismus Questionnaire (GTQ) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results. The incidence of trismus was 9% pre-treatment and 28% at the one-year follow-up post-treatment. The highest incidence, 38%, was found six months post-treatment. Patients with tumours of the tonsils were most prone to develop trismus. Patients with trismus reported greater HRQL impairments with regard to the GTQ domains; mouth opening (p < 0.001), jaw-related problems (p < 0.05), eating limitations (p < 0.05) and muscular tension (p < 0.001) six months post-treatment. EORTC QLQ H&N 35 scores indicated clinically significantly more problems with dry mouth, swallowing and pain for patients with trismus, 6-12 months post-treatment. Furthermore, all patients reported pain, anxiety and depression pre- and post-treatment. Conclusion. The incidence of trismus in patients with H&N cancer is non-negligible. Trismus severely impairs HRQL and negatively affects daily life activities in patients with H&N cancer. Further studies regarding symptomatic treatment of patients with trismus are highly warranted. The symptom-specific questionnaire GTQ is useful to identify the problems in this group of patients given it is responsive to showing change over time.
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