Inpharma 1540 - 3 Jun 2006

■ Botulinum toxin A injections are an effectivetreatment for low back pain, report researchers fromthe US. In their open-label study, 60 patients withchronic and stable low back pain received botulinumtoxin A injections at a dose of 40–50 units per site(maximum dose of ≤ 200 units for unilateral pain and≤ 500 units for bilateral pain) at study entry, and at4 months’ follow-up if a beneficial response hadoccurred at 2 months.* At 2 months and 4 monthsafter initial injection, 58% and 16.6% of patients,respectively, had a sustained beneficial response asmeasured using a visual analog pain scale, the OLBPQand a CLBPQ.** Two months after reinjection, 18 of19 evaluable patients reported a beneficial response.Interestingly, of the 22 initial responders with radicularpain, 15 (68%) experienced a significant improvementin this pain, and it completely ceased in 9 of thesepatients (60%).* This study was supported by a grant from Allergan, US.** Oswestry Low Back Pain Questionnaire and a clinical low backpain questionnaire

Ney JP, et al. Treatment of chronic low back pain with successive injections ofbotulinum toxin a over 6 months: a prospective trial of 60 patients. ClinicalJournal of Pain 22: 363-369, No. 4, May 2006 801065630

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