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Responsiveness to botulinum toxin type A in muscles of complex regional pain patients with tonic dystonia

  • Neurology and Preclinical Neurological Studies - Original Article
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Abstract

Tonic dystonia of the limbs in complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is associated with considerable disability. Treatment options are scarce. Botulinum toxin (BoNT) is sometimes used, but the effect is often said to be disappointing. However, this notion stems from case reports and clinicians’ opinions but has never been formally studied. We therefore investigated responsiveness to BoNT in CRPS patients with tonic dystonia. We injected the extensor digitorum brevis (EDB) muscle with BoNT-A in 17 patients with CRPS and tonic dystonia to compare the response between affected and unaffected legs. We also investigated the right legs of 17 healthy controls. Responsiveness was defined as a decrease of the amplitude of the compound muscle action potential (CMAP) of >20 % from baseline 2 weeks after BoNT-A injection. We controlled for a temperature effect on BoNT efficacy by measuring skin temperature hourly directly above the EDB muscle in the first 2 weeks. CMAP amplitude decreased >20 % after injection on the affected side in 16 of 17 CRPS patients, similar to the response in unaffected legs (12/13) or legs of controls (17/17). The degree of CMAP reduction was significantly smaller in patients than in controls (56.0 ± 22.3 vs. 70.6 ± 14.6 %; p = 0.031). This may be due to a lower physical activity level and a greater difficulty to localize the EDB muscle properly in affected legs. The decrease in CMAP amplitude was not related to skin temperature. Contrary to the prevailing opinion, BoNT-A has a normal, although perhaps slightly lower efficacy in CRPS patients with dystonia.

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Acknowledgments

This study is part of TREND (Trauma RElated Neuronal Dysfunction), a Dutch Consortium that integrates research on epidemiology, assessment technology, pharmacotherapeutics, biomarkers, and genetics on CRPS type 1. The consortium aims to develop concepts on disease mechanisms that occur in response to tissue injury, its assessment, and treatment. TREND is supported by a grant of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs (BSIK03016).

Conflict of interest

JS, JGvD, JM and JJvH have nothing to disclose. JK has received an unrestricted research grant from Ipsen Pharmaceutical and Allergan, inc. for studies and teaching workshops on dystonia and from Ipsen to finance a specialized dystonia nurse. DD has received compensation for consultancies from Allergan, Ipsen, Merz, Solstice/Eisai and is share holder of Allergan. None of the companies above had a role in study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, in the writing of the report and in the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Leiden University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9600, 2300 RC, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Johanna C. M. Schilder, J. Gert van Dijk, Johan Marinus & Jacobus J. van Hilten

  2. Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

    Dirk Dressler

  3. Department of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Johannes H. T. M. Koelman

Authors
  1. Johanna C. M. Schilder
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  2. J. Gert van Dijk
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  3. Dirk Dressler
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  4. Johannes H. T. M. Koelman
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  5. Johan Marinus
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  6. Jacobus J. van Hilten
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Correspondence to Johanna C. M. Schilder.

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Schilder, J.C.M., van Dijk, J.G., Dressler, D. et al. Responsiveness to botulinum toxin type A in muscles of complex regional pain patients with tonic dystonia. J Neural Transm 121, 761–767 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-014-1172-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-014-1172-8

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