Effect of botulinum toxin type-A in patients with focal spasticity

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of botulinum toxin type-A (BTX-A) on spasticity and function in patients with focal spasticity. METHODS Patients attended to the outpatient clinic of physical medicine and rehabilitation department with a diagnosis of focal spasticity and had BTX-A injections because of spasticty were evaluated for the study. Demographic data, exercise status, orthoses, drugs used for spasticity, functional status, stages of spasticity of muscles before and after 1st and 3rd months of BTX-A injection according to Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) were evaluated retrospectively. MedCalc 11.6 statistical program was used for statistical analyses. Statistical significance was defined as p<0.05. RESULTS Forty-nine patients with focal spasticity were recruited for the study (35 men, 14 women). Mean age of the patients was 21.59±20.09 years. The patients had cerebral palsy (CP, n=28), 19 had hemiplegia (n=19) and paraplegia (n=2). Forty-three patients were using orthoses and exercising regularly. Mean Pediatric Functional Independence Measurement (WeeFIM) scores of the patients with CP was 54.82±28.91 and according to the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) the patients were in stages 2 (14%), 3 (46%), 4 (11%) and 5 (29%). Mean Functional Independence Measure (FIM) of hemiplegic and paraplegic patients was 80.80±20.88. Brunnstrom staging scores for upper extremity (3.52±0.96), hands (2.68±0.82), lower extremity (4.57±1.01) were calculated. MAS muscles demonstrated statistically significant decrease in spasticity at the end of first and third months (p<0.05). CONCLUSION We saw a significant decrease in the spasticity of upper and lower extremities in patients with focal spasiticity who received BTX-A injections. We suggest that if BTX-A injections are supported with orthoses and exercise programs, then functional status of the patients would be better.