Prevention of Oral Mucositis in Pediatric Patients Receiving Chemotherapy: A Systematic Review

Abstract

This systematic review sets out to investigate and critically appraise and rate the evidence on different nursing care preventative agents used to prevent oral mucositis in children. Systematic literature searches were made in electronic and manual searches, assessed based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of 5 articles published were included in this study. The results found that the different preventative regimens/ agents were: one articles on oral self-care protocols intervention, four articles focus on oral care protocol by using different mouth-wash rinsing. All articles involved children ranging in age from 1 to 17 years and reported statistically significant reduction in the rates of occurrence of oral mucositis. Moreover, a standard first step to preventing mucosal injury is the implementation of good oral hygiene and the use of a standardized oral care protocol for all children undergoing chemotherapy. This systematic review suggests that: Oral care protocols should be considered as efficacious, feasible and affordable mean to prevent oral mucositis in children.The evidence on the use of mouthwash to prevent oral mucositis needs further investigation and should not be considered in the prevention of oral mucositis in children.