Vol. 28 No. 2 (2021), Review
Vol. 28 No. 2 (2021)

Botulinum toxin for the treatment of myofascial pain syndrome

Review
Published 2021-05-28
Diana Carolina Nájera Losada
Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves image/svg+xml
John Carlos Pérez Moreno
Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves image/svg+xml
Agustín Mendiola de la Osa
Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda image/svg+xml
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Keywords

Myofascial pain
trigger point
botulinum toxin
botox.

Abstract

Botulinum toxin injections have been used in pain treatment associated with pathologies such as focal dystonia, spasticity, headaches and myofascial pain. However, results from botulinum toxin trials in myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) are contradictory. The objective of this paper is to analyze the evidence of botulinum toxin type A (BTA) efficacy compared to placebo in myofascial pain management. Literature search was performed in PubMed, Web of Science (WoS), Scielo and Scopus, using the following key words: myofascial pain, trigger point, botulinum toxin and botox. Eleven clinical trials comparing BTA versus normal saline solution (NSS) met the inclusion criteria. Although most of the clinical trials analyzed cannot demonstrate a BTA superiority, it would not be correct to conclude that botulinum toxin is not indicated in miofascial pain treatment due to the great heterogeneous patient selection, variability in BTA doses, different trigger points (TP) injections techniques, variability in trials duration, and absence of cost-effective analysis. More specific clinical trials are required using homogeneous samples to provide conclusive evidence for BTA in the MPS treatment.
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