Radiodermatitis Treatment: Traditional Review

Abstract

Radiodermatitis (RD) is a common side effect of radiation, seen as serious skin reactions such as erythema, edema, dermatitis, desquamation, necrosis. It can be seen in 2 different ways as acute RD that occurs approximately 90 days after the application of radiation and chronic RD that can occur after a longer period of time. Relief of symptoms is based on clinician's experience in accurately assessing the risk of developing RD and estimating the extent of skin damage. The diagnosis of RD is mainly based on clinical findings and many diagnostic tools are available for this purpose. Different scoring systems are used for grading RD symptoms. RD occurs in approximately 95% of cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy (RT). Skin reactions such as moist desquamation, necrosis and ulceration caused by radiation application significantly reduce the compliance of patients to RT and cause interruption of treatment protocols. Therefore, many studies have been conducted for the prevention and treatment of RD. It is recommended to clean the skin that shows signs of RD during treatment with soap and water. Although the use of corticosteroids and silver sulfadiazine is common among the treatment options, there are also topical products that are not considered as drugs. Ointment, patch, aerosol, emulsion, emulgel, hydrogel, and paste are topical dosage forms studied or commercially available to treat RD. In this review, general information about RD was given and possible treatment options were compiled; In this regard, articles and patents on different dosage forms were examined.