[Inhalation therapy by dose-inhalers: analysis of patients performance and possibilities for improvement]

Inhalation therapy in chronic obstructive airways disease requires an efficient inhalation technique. This study analyses step by step the mistakes made in the usage of different MDIs, relates these to patient information prior to the testing and examines several teaching procedures for improvement of knowledge and performance of the inhalation technique. 125 patients suffering from COPD were assigned to six different groups according to their background knowledge in the inhalation technique. The performance was assessed in standardized single steps and as overall performance. Furthermore the efficacy of an interactive pc-based-training program was evaluated. The worst performance was seen in patients who only used the suppliers medication leaflet as a guide. Patients trained in outpatient clinics as well as patients trained in small groups during an inpatient stay showed a better performance. A high improvement rate was seen in prior MDI naive patients after they had undergone the interactive pc-based training program. Most problems were detected in the application step "exhalation before inhalation" and in the actuation-inhalation step. Besides the classical and the pc-based training the use of MDI phantoms showed very good results. The practical conclusion of this study is that the ability of patients to use inhalation pharmacotherapy efficiently needs improvement. Training programs of different intensity lead to a different outcome in performance and knowledge depending on prior knowledge. Inhalation pharmacotherapy without adequate training is insufficient.