Objective: To identify the epidemiological profile of patients treated with botulinum toxin type A (BTA) in a tertiary clinic in Brazil.

Background: BTA is used to treat many clinical and neurological conditions, such as hemifacial spasms, dystonia, spasticity and sialorrhoea, which improves many aspects of quality of life. Since 1998, BTA is offered as an adjuvant treatment to patients attending the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Clinic of the Federal University of Sergipe.

Methods: 364 medical records were evaluated and grouped in the following categories: “blepharospasm’, “hemifacial spasm”, “cervical dystonia”, “spasticity” and “others”. Patients with hemifacial spasms were evaluated by gender, age and clinical comorbidities.

Results: 96.8% of all patients (n=335) received treatment with BTA and hemifacial spasm was the most common diagnosis for treatment with BTA (38%), followed by spasticity (22%), cervical dystonia (15%) and blepharospasm (10%) (Figure 1). There was a higher proportion of women in all categories and the group with spasticity had the lower mean age (43 years old), while the one with blepharospasm had the highest (60 years old). Arterial hypertension and diabetes mellitus were the most common comorbidities in patients with hemifacial spasms (Figure 2), occurring in 54% and 11% of patients, respectively. As for “others” category”, 24% had segmental dystonia, 15% had sialorrhoea and 15% had task-specific focal dystonia.

Conclusions: Botulinum toxin still remains a safe and efficient therapeutic option for some neurological disorders, especially hemifacial spasm and focal dystonia, exhibiting a superior response when compared with oral medication. In our experience, hemifacial spasm was the most common pathology to be treated with BTA, especially in women, and patients usually had comorbid hypertension. We pretend to extend our service in the public health care, especially by training more physicians in BTA application and by facilitating access for patients requiring BTA therapy.

References: Osaki, M. H.; Belfort J.R, – Qualidade de vida e custos diretos em pacientes com blefaroespasmo essencial e espasmo hemifacial, tratados com toxina botulínica-A. Arq. Bras. Oftalmol.,  São Paulo ,  v. 67, n. 1, p. 43-49,  Feb.  2004.

Schellini, S.A. et al – Blefarospasmo essencial e espasmo hemifacial: características dos pacientes, tratamento com toxina botulínica A e revisão da literatura. Arq. Bras. Oftalmol.,  São Paulo ,  v. 69, n. 1, p. 23-26,  Feb.  2006.

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