JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Oral care is important to prevent buccal and systemic infections after an acquired brain injury (ABI). Despite recent advancements in the development of ABI clinical practice guidelines, recommendations for specific clinical processes and actions to attain adequate oral care often lack information.

Objective:

This systematic review will i) identify relevant ABI clinical practice guidelines, and ii) appraise the oral care recommendations existing in the selected guidelines.

Methods:

A search strategy was developed based on a recent systematic review of clinical practice guidelines for stroke. The protocol includes a search of Medline, Embase, and Dynamed Plus databases, as well as organizational and best-practice websites, and reference lists of accepted guidelines. Search terms will include MeSH and user-defined terms. Guideline appraisal will involve AGREE II ratings followed by a descriptive synopsis for oral care recommendations according to NHMRC evidence levels.

Results:

This project started in April 2019, when we developed the search strategy. The preliminary search of databases and websites yielded 863 and 787 citations respectively for a total of 1650. Data collection will start in May 2020 and we expect to begin disseminating the results in February 2021.

Conclusions:

Nursing staff may not have detailed recommendations on how to provide oral care for neurologically impaired patients. The findings of this review will explore the evidence for oral care in existing guidelines and improved outcomes for ABI population. We expect to provide adequate orientations to clinicians, inform policy and guidelines for best-practices, and contribute to future directions for research in the ABI realm.