WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Sonal Netram and Shatrughan Pareek*

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Oral mucositis (OM) is a common and often dose-limiting side effect of cancer therapy. Many of the cancer patients receiving cancer treatment do have variety of health problems like OM. Nurses play an important role in reducing the OM problems and improve the health status. Objective: To determine the comparative effectiveness of Povidone-iodine (PI) Vs Chlorhexidine CH oral care on OM. Material and Methods: The present study was conducted with quantitative approach with pre-test post-test design with two groups approached. The data were collected from 30 head and neck patients who were selected by simple random sampling technique with A and B group. The investigator collected data with help of demographic profile and WHO OM scale. The data was analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics wherever required. Results: It was found that before intervention the head and neck cancer patients (A group) had mean score (2.53) indicates 'grade II' OM whereas in B group patients had mean score (2.13) indicates 'grade II’OM. It was noted that after the intervention the level of OM was significantly reduced the mean score was (1.20). It shows that the use of PIfor oral care helps in minimizing the OM i.e., from grade II to grade I. Both Povidone-iodine (PI) and Chlorhexidine (CH) were effective in reducing the level of OM but PI was more effective in decline the OM score compare to CH (p<0.00001). Conclusion: The study outcome revealed that PI was found to be more effective in reducing OM among head and neck cancer patients than the CH. It should be emphasized that nurse intervention should be practiced and used routinely for the head and neck cancer patients to have better outcome.