The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of oral cryotherapy on oral mucositis, reactive oxygen series, inflammatory cytokines, and oral comfort in patients undergoing chemotherapy for gynecologic cancers.

Participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group (n=25, receiving oral cryotherapy during chemotherapy) and the control group (n=25, receiving the usual care consisting of 0.9% normal saline gargles three times before meals). Oral mucositis was assessed using the oral assessment guide, while oral comfort was assessed using the oral perception guide. Reactive oxygen series was measured as total oxidant stress, and the level of two inflammatory markers, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), were examined. The data were analyzed using t-test, chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, Mann-Whitney U-test, and repeated measures analysis of variance.

There was a significant difference in the oral mucositis score, reactive oxygen series score, TNF-α level, and oral comfort score between the two groups, and there were significant changes over time and in the group-by-time interactions. There was a significant difference in the IL-6 score between the two groups, but there were no significant changes over time or in the group-by-time interactions.

The study results revealed that oral cryotherapy was more effective than the usual care regime of normal saline gargles for reducing oral mucositis, reactive oxygen series, and inflammatory cytokines and for improving oral comfort in gynecologic cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

This study was done to examine the incidence of oral mucositis in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients and to identify factors influencing oral mucositis and patient outcomes according to severity.

In this retrospective study, data were collected from electronic medical records of 222 patients who had received hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Oral mucositis was evaluated using WHO's assessment scale. Data were analyzed using Chi-square test, Fisher exact test, Spearman's correlation, Ordinal logistic regression, ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis test.

A total of 69.8% of the patients evaluated developed oral mucositis (grade II and over). As a results of ordinal regression, factors influencing oral mucositis severity were found to be diagnosis, type of transplantation, oxygen inhalation and the number of antiemetics administration before transplantation. The severity of oral mucositis was found to increase the days of hospitalization, days of TPN administration, days of using antibiotics and the number and dosage of analgesics.

The results would help predict severity of oral mucositis in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients and suggest that provision of appropriate nursing assessment and oral care would improve patient outcomes.