Effectiveness of Oral Ice Cube Application on Prevention of Oral Mucositis among Cancer Patients Who Receive Chemotherapy

Abstract

Background: Mucostitis has been shown to occur in patients receiving chemotherapy. Oral ice cube application is an alternative method of preventing stomatitis associated with chemotherapeutic drugs. Aim: The aim of the study was to assess the level of oral mucositis (OM) among cancer patients who receive chemotherapy before and after the application of oral ice cubes. Research

Methodology: The research design selected for the study was pre-experimental one group pre-test post-test research design. Thirty in-patients who receive chemotherapy (5-fluorouracil and methotrexate) were taken as the samples in convenience sampling method. Ice cubes were applied on the oral mucosa before infusing chemotherapy session for 5 min and 20 min after session. Oral assessment guide (OAG) was used prior and on 7th-day post-intravenous chemotherapy to assess the level of OM.

Results: In pre-test, 100% of the cancer patients were with healthy oral mucosa. In the post-test, 73.3% of cancer patients were with healthy oral mucosa and 26.5% were with moderate OM. The paired “t” test value was 3.3 for healthy mucosa and 2.17 for moderate mucositis. There was no evidence of severe mucositis. All the “t” values are high when compared to table value 2.05. It seems that there is significant effectiveness of oral ice cubes on prevention of OM among cancer patients who receive chemotherapy. The overall mean percentage score for pre-test was 100% whereas in post-test it was 73.25% revealing a difference of 26.75%. It depicts that the oral ice cube application on the prevention of OM was effective among cancer patients who receive chemotherapy. Chi-square reveals that there was a significant association (P > 0.05) found between the post-test scores OAG and demographic variables like frequency of check-ups.

Conclusion: Results revealed that there is significant in the mean total scores of the group and who received oral ice cubes had healthy oral mucosa. It was concluded that oral ice cubes reduce the level of OM induced by chemotherapy. Oral ice cube application can be included in the nursing care of cancer patients who receive Chemotherapy.