Respuesta terapeutica de la pilocarpina en relación a la xerostomía inducida por radioterapia

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of pilocarpine in patients with xerostomy induced by radiotherapy in head and neck. Twenty patients of the Instituto Nacional de Cancerología (INCan) participated. A randomized, prospective and longitudinal study was carried out. The control group (n = 10) received a placebo. The study group (n = 10) was medicated daily with 5 mg of pilocarpine every 8 hours. Salivary flux was quantified three times: at the beginning of the treatment, at the fourth and at the seventh week. The quantification was realized by the mass difference method. When the first quantification was carried out at the beginning of radiotherapy treatment, no patient had received medication. Comparing both groups we obtained t = 0.525, p = 0.606, so that there was no statistically significant difference in salivary flux. In the fifth week a reduction of salivary flux in both groups was observed, when the groups were compared there was no statistically significant difference between them (t = 0.481, p = 0.636). In the seventh week a significative increment in salivary flux in the study group compared with the control group was observed. For the study group the values were: mean = 0.651 and standard deviation = 0.380, while for the control group the values were: mean = 0.256 and standard deviation = 0.251. By comparing the groups with t-Student test, the results were: t = 2.743, p = 0.013. It is concluded that pilocarpine is an alternative, viable, safe and economic treatment for xerostomy induced by radiotherapy.