NURSING CONSULTATION: GUIDELINES FOR THE CARE OF CANCER PATIENTS AFTER THE END OF RADIOTHERAPY

Introduction: Radiotherapy, one of the modalities for cancer treatment, uses ionizing radiation, which can cause some adverse effects, especially on irradiated skin, which may remain for three months until years after the end of treatment. In this sense, during the nursing consultation, care should be given to minimize these late effects at the end of treatment. Objective: To identify the evidence available in the literature about the care of cancer patients after the end of radiotherapy. Method: This is an integrative review, conducted from May to June 2018, in the databases LILACS / BDENF via BVS, SCIELO, MEDLINE via PUBMED and CINAHL via EBSCOhost, considering the controlled descriptors radiotherapy, nursing and the uncontrolled descriptor discharge guidelines. We included studies in English, Portuguese and / or Spanish, without temporal delimitation, that addressed the care at the end of treatment, considering brachytherapy or teletherapy. Editorials, case studies, annals and duplicate samples were excluded. Results: A total of 47 studies were identified and only six were selected. In the CINAHL and BDENF databases, no articles matching the inclusion criteria were identified. From the findings, three categories were defined: Skin Care, whose recommendations were related to hygiene, hydrophilic lotion hydration, nutrition and sun protection of the skin, besides evaluating the development of chronic dermatitis (recall phenomenom). For the Oral Care category, the recommendations were centered on oral hygiene, hydration, laser therapy and associated dental follow-up to assess the risk of necrosis with or without bone exposure and radioinduced caries. The last category, Gynecological Care, corresponds to guidelines related to post-brachytherapy vaginal dilation exercises, which include the use of vaginal dilator. Conclusion: There was a limitation in the literature regarding the recommendations on care after the end of radiotherapy. Thus, it is suggested the development of more studies on the theme that better guide the practice of nurses.

 

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No conflict of interest has been declared by the author(s).

Publication History

Article published online:
23 October 2019