bacteriological study of the oral ecology in irradiated head and neck cancer patients

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out on eleven normal controls and thirty head and neck cancer patients who received a full tumericidal dose [6000 cGy] of Cobalt 60. For all subjects studied [patients and controls], samples of saliva were collected and cultured under aerobic conditions. Samples were taken from the irradiated patients, before, in the middle, at the end and six months after completion of irradiation, for quantitative and qualitative bacteriologic evaluation. The main change was in the staphylococci where there was marked increase in percentage of cases with positive culture for Staph aureus, marked decrease in Staph-albus and complete absence of Staph- citreus. The Gram-negative bacilli were absent and appeared at the end of irradiation. From this study it was found that the post-operative oral sepsis in previously irradiated patients is not only due to the immunological depression of patients but also due to the changes in the oral bacterial ecology