Cryotherapy Effect in Prevention of Oral Mucositis in Adult Patients who Received Chemotherapy : An Evidence-Based Review

Prevention and management of oral mucositis (OM) in adult patients who received chemotherapy are challenging issues for health care professionals. Numerous methods have been tested to cope with this problem. Aims: the goal of this evidencebased review is to identify effectiveness of cryotherapy in prevention of oral mucositis in adult patients who received chemotherapy. The method: a literature search was performed using an appropriate keywords search in Cochrane, Science Direct and Pubmed databases from 2009 to 2013. However, two exclusive studies that were conducted in 2007 have been included. Nine full papers are included in this review. The inclusion criteria were : adult cancer patients who had OM, Oral mucositis induced by chemotherapy, using cryotherapy to prevent OM and articles written in English language. The findings: cryotherapy has an effective method in prevention of OM with chemotherapy regimens that include 5FU regimens and high dose melphalan. Conclusions: cryotherapy is an effective method for prevention of oral mucositis in patients who received two specific chemotherapy regimens that include 5FU regimens and high dose melphalan. In addition, the efficacy of oral cryotherapy is affected by the types of chemotherapy regimens including the half life for each one and it depends on the causative mechanisms of oral mucositis including direct and indirect mucositis. Recommendations: researchers recommended doing additional studies (clinical trials) to broaden the potential applications of cryotherapy in clinical settings, with increased sample size in order to generalize findings, and to increase nursing awareness with this method.