Svanberg, A., Öhrn, K., & Birgegård, G. (2010). Oral cryotherapy reduces mucositis and improves nutrition: A randomised controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 19, 2146–2151.
To investigate if oral cryotherapy during myeloablative therapy may influence frequency and severity of mucositis, nutritional status, and infection rate after bone marrow transplant
Patients were randomly assigned to the cryotherapy treatment group or the usual care control group. A stratified randomization technique was used in regard to the type of transplant. Patients in the cryotherapy treatment group were instructed to suck on ice chips or rinse with ice-cold water during chemotherapy administration. The control group followed usual care without cryotherapy.
The study was conducted at a single-site, inpatient setting in Uppsala, Sweden.
This was a randomized controlled trial.
Oral cryotherapy may be helpful in reducing the severity of mucositis, particularly in patients receiving autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT). Decreasing the severity of mucositis may lead to decreases in the need for TPN and better maintenance of serum albumin levels. Limited statistically significant findings were found in this study; however, it supports positive trends that favor cryotherapy use. Larger, prospective trials need to be completed.
Mucositis carries a high symptom burden for patients undergoing stem cell transplant. Cryotherapy may be one way to curb the effects of oral mucositis. However, this study provided no evidence to suggest that cryotherapy is the definitive way to prevent mucositis or to lessen the intensity of mucositis for all patients across the board.