Health-Related Quality of Life Outcomes from Botulinum Toxin Treatment in Spasticity.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The effects of botulinum toxin injections (BoNT) on health-related quality of life along the complex spectrum of spasticity needs further characterization to guide practitioners in a real-life therapeutic environment. METHODS: In this study, we analyzed 50 consecutive and unselected patients with spasticity before and four weeks after re-injection of botulinum toxin. Health-related quality of life in terms of the EuroQol (EQ) as well as further motor and non-motor characteristics were assessed. RESULTS: BoNT improved the EQ visual analog scale (EQ VAS). In addition, state of health and pain maxima improved. The EQ VAS improvement correlated with pre-injection characteristics of the EQ VAS and life satisfaction in the "movement disorders" domain. CONCLUSION: EQ VAS is sensitive for monitoring HR-QoL outcomes in an unselected real life observational cohort. This study may inform future studies intended to validate prediction variables that could inform on HR-QoL effects of BoNT treatment in spasticity.