Clinical features and treatment with botulinum toxin in blepharospasm: a 17-year experience

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: It was to analyze clinical aspects of patients with blepharospasm, including outcomes of botulinum toxin treatment. Additionally, clinical characteristics of isolated blepharospasm were compared to those of blepharospasm plus other movement disorders. METHODS: Clinical data recorded during 17 years were reviewed. The variables included age, gender, age of onset, past medical history, head trauma, smoking history, family history of dystonia, severity, duration of botulinum toxin relief and adverse effects. RESULTS: A total of 125 patients were included and 75.2% were female. The mean age of onset was 54.3 years; 89.6% of the individuals started with contractions in eye region, and 39.2% of them spread to lower face or neck. Isolated blepharospasm group was compared with blepharospasm-plus group for demographic and clinical features, and therapeutic outcomes, without significant differences. Botulinum toxin treatment improved the severity of contractions (p=0.01) with low rate of side effects (14%). CONCLUSIONS: Both groups - isolated blepharospasm and blepharospasm-plus - shared similar results concerning epidemiology, clinical features and therapeutic response to botulinum toxin.

Efficacy and Safety of Long-Term Therapy with Type A Botulinum Toxin in Patients with Blepharospasm

“…of pretarsal injections (15.4%) than in the Gil-Polo study (41.2%). 22 Additionally, the results of our study are consistent with many of those previously published with shorter follow-up periods [22][23][24][25] regarding not only the efficacy of the BTA but also the epidemiological findings (age at onset and female predominance).…”

“…This study found an incidence of adverse events of the 8.3% in patients with BPS. In line with these results, Aquino et al 25 reported an incidence of adverse events of the 14% in a cohort of 113 patients treated Figure 1. Patient Evaluation of Global Response Scale.…”

“…Nevertheless, the incidence of adverse events in our study is similar to that previously reported by other studies 16,24,27 and significantly lower than that published in the Gil-Polo et al's study. 22 As in prior studies 16,22,24,25,28 ptosis was the most common side effect (25%) following by haematoma (9%). Nevertheless, side effects were well tolerated in our series and were not related to treatment withdrawal.…”

Experiences on the administration of botulinum toxin in movement disorders

“…Of the 101 patients, 78 (77.2%) were women and the mean age was 64.9 years. Aquino et al [17] identified 125 patients (75% women) after evaluating their 17-year clinical data. The mean age was 54.3 years, and the mean duration of the effect of the toxin was 3.1 months.…”

Chemodenervation for the Treatment of Facial Dystonia

“…Aquino et al 40 (level III) retrospectively studied 125 patients with BEB over a 17-year span to evaluate the clinical features and therapeutic outcomes of Botox and Dysport. However, the authors reported on efficacy of botulinum toxin overall, without a separate analysis of the Botox and Dysport outcomes.…”