Affiliations: [a]
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, Madrid, Spain
| [b]
Sport Traumatology, Hospital San Rafael, Madrid, Spain
| [c] Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati INFN, Frascati, Italy
| [d]
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro, Madrid, Spain
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common neurologic disease in young adults. Spasticity is one of its most disabling symptoms, with botulinum toxin A type A (BoNT-A) being one of the treatments of choice for this symptom. OBJECTIVE:We assessed the response to abobotulinumtoxinA in improving walking ability and fatigue in patients with spastic paraparesis caused by MS. METHODS:We performed a real-world, multicenter, prospective, open-label low-intervention trial in 84 patients with MS and spastic paraparesis of the lower limbs infiltrated with abobotulinumtoxinA (LINITOX study). The response of spasticity, walking ability and fatigue is analyzed in 4 cycles of ultrasound-guided injection in the lower limbs. RESULTS:The patients improved their walking ability by an average of 11.34% meters measured with 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), and decreased the percentage of fatigue by 6.86% (4.66 percentage points less), in the 12-Item Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale (MSWS-12) 4 weeks after abobotulinumtoxinA injection, both values are statistically significant. This improvement seems to persist over time, throughout the cycles. CONCLUSION:We found improved walking ability and less fatigue in patients with MS-related spastic paresis of the lower limbs after injection of abobotulinumtoxinA.
Keywords: Multiple sclerosis, spasticity, fatigue, botulinum toxin, gait, quality of life
