The effects of one botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) injection after UPPP

Botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) can be used in various medical fields for more than simply cosmetic purposes, especially in pain control. Unlabelled uses of BTX-A for reducing pain include migraines, chronic anal fissures, chronic non-specific muscular pain syndrome, and temporomandibular joint arthritis. However, there are no reports of using BTX-A in postoperative situation. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of BTX-A after surgical procedures, especially in terms of pain reduction. We randomly selected 74 people who visited us not excluded by the criteria and were provided with uvulopharyngopalatoplasty for primary snoring from February 2005 to January 2007. Group A is the BTX-A-injected group and group B is the control group (normal saline injected group or N/S). Group A had 35 patients and group B had 39 patients. Among these patients, we chose 58 patients who can be under tracing observation. The mean age was 26 years (range 18-41). There were 49 males and 9 females. We compared the level of snoring, postoperative pain, use of drugs, and postoperative foreign body sensation with survey paper. Snoring scores were dramatically decreased in both the groups. Postoperative pain scores and foreign body sensation scores were much more decreased in group A than in group B (P < 0.001) and the total amount of NSAIDs used were lower in group A (P < 0.001). BTX-A could be used to reduce postoperative pain after snoring surgery by reducing a specific complication.