Botulinum toxin-A beneficial in painful diabetic neuropathy

(HealthDay)—Botulinum toxin-A (BTX-A) appears to be beneficial for painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN), according to a meta-analysis published online March 20 in Pain Medicine.

Shaheen E. Lakhan, M.D., Ph.D., from the Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation in Los Angeles, and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of two studies using BTX-A in the treatment of neuropathic pain. The difference in visual analog scale (VAS) from pre-intervention to one month post-intervention was measured as the primary outcome.

The researchers found that following treatment with BTX-A there was an improvement of 1.96 VAS points (P < 0.001), which corresponded to a clinically significant improvement of "minimum change in pain." There was no statistically significant effect on adverse events in terms of infection at injection site (P = 0.49).

"Tests for significance, low overall risk of bias, and almost no statistical heterogeneity suggests that there is a correlation between BTX-A and improvement of pain scores in PDN," the authors write.