About this Medicine article

Treatment of Achalasia: the Short-term Response to Botulinum Toxin Injection Seems to Be Independent of Any Kind of Pretreatment by M Storr; P Born; E Frimberger; N Weigert; T Rösch; A Meining; M Classen; HD Allescher is a Medicine article available to read on EtoBox.

## Background: It has been suggested that intrasphincteric injection of botulinum toxin (btx) may represent an alternative therapy to balloon dilatation in achalasia. the aim of the present study was to test the effectiveness of botulinum toxin injections in achalasia patients, as assessed using lower oesophageal sphincter pressure (losp) and symptom scores, and to compare the response in patients with different types of pretreatment (no previous treatment, balloon dilatation, myotomy, btx injection). ## Methods: Forty patients who presented with symptomatic achalasia were treated with btx injection (48 injections in 40 patients). some of the patients had received prior treatment (seven with myotomy, seven with dilatation and eight with btx). the symptoms were assessed using a global symptom score (0-10), which was evaluated before treatment, 1 week afterwards, and 1 month afterwards. manometry was also carried out before and after treatment. three different selections of patients were studied: all patients; untreated patients; and patients with prior btx, dilatation, or myotomy. ## Results: After btx injection, there was a significant reduction in losp (before, 38.2+/-11.3 mmhg; 1

Author

M Storr; P Born; E Frimberger; N Weigert; T Rösch; A Meining; M Classen; HD Allescher

Publisher

BioMed Central; Springer (Biomed Central Ltd.); London: BioMed Central, 2001-; Springer Science and Business Media LLC; Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Inc. (ISSN 1471-230X)

Published

2002

Language

EN

Field

Medicine (Health Sciences)