Botulinum Toxin a Relieves Severe Facial Pain

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The excruciating pain associated with inflammation of the trigeminal nerve of the head and face can be substantially relieved by injections of botulinum toxin A, physicians report, with pain relief lasting at least 60 days.

Botulinum toxin A is commonly known as Botox, although the product goes by several brand names.

Dr. Elcio J. Piovesan, from Hospital de Clinicas da Universidade Federal do Parana in Curitiba, Brazil, and colleagues administered subcutaneous injections of botulinum toxin to four men who had trigeminal neuralgia for an average of 10 years and to nine women who had suffered for 8 years, on average.

The patients assessed the pain in the three branches of the trigeminal nerve with a 10-point visual analog scale, which ranged from 9.82 to 10 points before treatment, the team reports in the journal Neurology.

Ten days after the injections, scores averaged 3.78 to 5.83. Maximum pain relief was noted after 20 days, with average pain scores of 0 to 0.82.

Pain increased slightly by day 60, with scores in the 1.82-to -3.17 range.

Prior to botulinum treatment, the patients had used numerous medications to try to keep the pain at bay. "Most of our patients reduced their preventive medication by more than 50 percent," Piovesan's group notes, while "others stopped them completely."

SOURCE: Neurology, October 25, 2005.