Saturday, September 25, 2010

Drooling and Botox

The Archives of Otolaryngol - Head and Neck Surgery published research on the use of Botox injections to control drooling. One hundred thirty one children with cerebral palsy or other neurological condition with moderate to severe drooling received an injection of Botox to the submandibular glands. Following the injections, 46.6% of the children responded to the treatment. This was demonstrated by a significant mean reduction in the drooling quotient dropping from 29 to 15 at after 2 months and from 29 to 19 after 8 months. In addition, a visual analog scale rated by the caretakers showed decreased scores from 83 to 53 after 2 months and increased back up to 66 at 8 months. An analysis showed that after a mean of 22 weeks a relapse occurred in the patients who initially showed a response to the treatment.

Reference: Arthur R. T. Scheffer, MD; Corrie Erasmus, MD; Karen van Hulst, BSc; Jacques van Limbeek, MD, PhD; Peter H. Jongerius, MD, PhD; Frank J. A. van den Hoogen, MD, PhD Efficacy and Duration of Botulinum Toxin Treatment for Drooling in 131 Children Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2010;136(9):873-877. doi:10.1001/archoto.2010.147

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