ABSTRACT:
AIM: The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of flavored ice cubes on oral mucositis in patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy. BACKGROUND: This study evaluates the effect of application of flavored ice cubes in patients, on chemotherapy induced oral mucositis in combined chemotherapy regimens. METHOD: The study consisted of total of 60 samples, 30 in experimental group and 30 in control group. Simple random sampling technique - lottery method was used to select samples. DESIGN: The design adopted for the study was pre-test post test true experimental control group design. The experimental group was given flavored ice cubes to place in their mouth for 5 minutes before the chemo drug infusion, 30 minutes during the infusion and 5 minutes after the infusion of the chemodrug. The control group received no intervention. Both the groups were treated with the following chemo drug combination (i) cisplatin + 5fu (ii) cisplatin + etoposide (iii) cisplatin + paclitaxel (iv) cisplatin + irinotecan (v) cisplatin + gemcitabine. The Oral Mucositis Assessment Scale was used for evaluation. RESULT: The results revealed that 70% of the samples in experimental group on pre test samples had mild ulceration and 56% had not severe erythema. After application of ice cubes, on 3rd day observation 50% had no ulceration and 70% had no erythema and on 21st day observation 73.33% had no ulceration and 60% had no erythema. In control group, on pretest 3.3% had mild ulceration, 60% had not severe erythema. On 3rd day observation 90% had mild ulceration, 96.6% had not severe erythema. On 21st day observation 70% had mild ulceration, 93.33% had not severe erythema. In the pretest, majority of the samples in experimental group and control group had mild ulceration and not severe erythema. In the post test there was improvement in the reduction of oral mucositis in the experimental group whereas in the control group majority of the samples continued to have mild oral mucositis. There was an association between the oral mucositis and tobacco chewing, oral mucositis and the chemodrug usage. The combination of cisplatin+5fu and cisplatin+etoposide showed significant association in developing oral mucositis among the other chemodrug combinations enlisted. CONCLUSION: Oral cryotherapy makes an important contribution to the protection of oral health. Because of its easy of application, tolerability, and lack of side effects, has become an important remedy for reducing the incidence and severity of oral mucositis.