Ying Gu,* Ning Chen,* Min He, Duo Zheng, Juan Liu, Xia-Ling Fang

Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Xia-Ling Fang, Email farrough@21cn.com

Objective: To analyze the preventive and therapeutic effects of comprehensive nursing interventions on chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis in pediatric patients with hematologic malignancies.
Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted, and 80 pediatric patients with hematologic malignancies who underwent chemotherapy in our hospital from January 2020 to December 2023 were selected as the research subjects. According to different nursing intervention methods, the patients were divided into an experimental group (45 cases) and a control group (35 cases). The experimental group received comprehensive nursing interventions, including oral care, dietary guidance, and psychological support; the control group received routine care. The observation indicators included the incidence of oral mucositis, Oral Mucositis Daily Questionnaire (OMDQ) scores, pain index (Visual Analog Scale), and levels of inflammatory markers (IL-6 and CRP) in saliva.
Results: In the first, second, and fourth weeks of chemotherapy, the incidence of oral mucositis in the experimental group was significantly lower than in the control group (P < 0.05), with a total incidence of 51.11% compared to 77.14% (P = 0.017). Before chemotherapy, no significant difference was observed in OMDQ or VAS scores between the groups (p> 0.05). However, in the first, second, and fourth weeks, OMDQ and VAS scores in the experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.001). Similarly, levels of IL-6 and CRP showed no baseline difference between groups but were significantly reduced in the experimental group during these weeks (P < 0.001).
Conclusion: Comprehensive nursing interventions significantly reduce the incidence and severity of chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis in pediatric patients with hematologic malignancies, alleviate oral pain in pediatric patients, and effectively reduce the levels of inflammatory markers in saliva. The application of comprehensive nursing interventions in clinical nursing practice can improve the quality of care for pediatric patients with hematologic malignancies.

Keywords: pediatric oncology, hematologic malignancies, chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis, comprehensive nursing interventions, oral mucositis prevention, nursing outcomes, mucositis management, oral care, supportive care in pediatrics