Botulinum toxin in pain management of trigeminal neuralgia: literature review

Abstract

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Botulinum neurotoxin type A has been an interesting therapeutic complement to the conventional treatment of neuralgia, especially in patients without satisfactory response to pharmacotherapy and/or surgical procedures. A detailed and comprehensive literature review its important for the description of the available evidence, allowing for a critical view on the topic. Therefore, this study's objective was to describe the scientific evidence on the use of botulinum toxin type A in the neuralgia treatment. CONTENTS: Pubmed and Scielo databases were searched using the descriptors: trigeminal neuralgia and botulinum toxin. Inclusion criteria were human studies (open-label, double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled trials) and reviews of the use of botulinum toxin type A in neuralgia treatment, published in English, Spanish or Portuguese from January 2008 to March 2020. Twenty-one articles met the inclusion criteria. Overall, studies demonstrated that botulinum toxin type A significantly reduced pain intensity and paroxysmal episodes, as well as improved quality of life. CONCLUSION: Use of botulinum toxin type A in treatment of refractory neuralgia shows promising results, but further studies are needed to increase the knowledge and consolidation of this therapeutic alternative.