Effects of Mouthwash Containing Pomegranate Seed Oil on Improving Oral Mucositis in Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy

Introduction: Oral stomatitis or mucositis (OM) is one of the most painful, disabling and disturbing oral inflammatory conditions caused by chemotherapy, indicating one of the major clinical problems in oncology. The present study aimed to determine the effect of pomegranate seed oil (1) on improving chemotherapy-induced mucositis.Methods: This single-blind randomized clinical trial recruited patients with chemotherapy-induced mucositis in the oncology ward of Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Kashan, Iran, in 2018 (n = 70). Patients were divided into two groups with a randomized block design. The control group was treated with 15 ml of routine mouthwash 4 times a day for 14 days. The intervention group was treated with a mixed solution of routine mouthwash and PSO (50:50).The severity of mucositis was evaluated on the 1st, 7th and 14th day after the intervention using a checklist for assessing the severity of mucositis. Data were analyzed using Chi-square, Fisher s exact, independent t and repeated measures ANOVA tests.Findings: The mean age of the subjects in the intervention and control groups was 57.48±14.742 and 58.81±14.134 years, respectively. The two groups matched for clinical and demographic characteristics (P> 0.05). The mean mucositis severity in the intervention group decreased from 1.97 on the 1st day to 0.52 on the 7th day and 0.03 on the 14th day (P<0.001). The severity of mucositis in the control group was 1.98, 1.47 and 0.63, respectively on these days (P<0.001).Conclusion: The effect of the mouthwash containing PSO on the improvement of chemotherapy-induced mucositis was more than that of the routine mouthwash. Therefore, PSO can be used along with routine medicinal solutions to relieve and prevent oral mucositis symptoms

Effects of Mouthwash Containing Pomegranate Seed Oil on Improving Oral Mucositis in Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy Keywords:

pomegranate seed oil , cancer , chemotherapy , mucositis , stomatitis