Glutamine will not save you from mucositis

Glutamine solutions are often used for mucositis prevention in patients after stem-cell transplantation. A novel study has shown, however, that glutamine enriched parenteral nutrition did not affect mucosal morbidity or complicatiuons in kids that had undergone allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) for malignant hematological diseases. The italian study, held in Monza, randomly assigned patients after HSCT to receive parenteral nutrition with or without glutamine supplementation. The outcome was measured accordingly to WHO standards and analyses followed intention-to-treat. Mucositis, a highly prevalent complication after HSCT, occurred in over 90% of patients, irrespective if they received or not glutamine. The study was published recently in Transplantation: http://bit.ly/obz5x9