Cardona, A., Balouch, A., Mohammed, M.A., Sedghizadeh, P.P., & Enciso, R. (2017). Efficacy of chlorhexidine for the prevention and treatment of oral mucositis in cancer patients: A systematic review with meta-analyses. Journal of Oral Pathology and Medicine. Advance online publication.
PHASE OF CARE: Active antitumor treatment
The incidence of mucositis was less with chlorhexidine. Across all studies, the relative risk (RR) ranged from 0.097–0.771 in favor of chlorhexidine (p = 0.05), with an overall RR of 0.899 (95% confidence interval [0.656, 1.232]). The findings for severity of mucositis were mixed.
Chlorhexidine was not associated with reduced severity of mucositis. There was a trend toward lower incidence of mucositis with chlorhexidine.
There are overall mixed findings about the effects of chlorhexidine oral rinses on chemotherapy- and radiation therapy–induced mucositis, with limited evidence in each of these subgroups. It appears that chlorhexidine is not useful for the treatment of mucositis but may have some role in prevention.