Nursing Intervention to Manage Oral Mucositis in Children Chemotherapy: A Systematic Review

In 40-80% of children undergoing chemotherapy, oral mucositis is an acute complication which imposes significant financial and physical burdens on patients. In this article, a systematic review of published studies is conducted to investigate the role of nursing intervention in reducing oral mucositis.

This systematic review investigated, critically appraised, and rated the evidence on nursing intervention to manage oral mucositis (OM) in children undergoing chemotherapy. The review was performed based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) checklist in 2018. A search was conducted through the literature using international databases (e.g., PubMed, Scopus, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the Web of Science). Only English-language trials published from January 2007 to December 2019 were selected to consider. There were eleven studies relevant enough to review.

A total of 127 articles were extracted in an electronic search. The excluded studies were combined research works on adults and children, descriptive studies, observational studies, and those about adults’ endurance of chemotherapy, mucositis produced by other cancer treatments, and cohorts. Finally, eleven studies were deemed eligible for inclusion in this review. Based on them, honey, olive oil, ice chips and chewing gum have been used to prevent, reduce and treat chemotherapy-induced mucositis.

This review made a comprehensive examination of the available treatment options for nursing. Nurses can use one of the treatments depending on the child's conditions.