• Fan Meng, Ke Peng, Jian-Ping Yang, Fu-Hai Ji, Fan Xia, and Xiao-Wen Meng.
• Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China, pengke0422@163.com, szyangjp@suda.edu.cn.
• J Pain Res. 2018 Jan 1; 11: 2343-2351.

AimThis meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of botulinum toxin-A (BTX-A) for the treatment of neuralgia.MethodsWe searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing BTX-A treatment with saline for alleviating neuropathic pain. Primary outcome measures were pain scores up to 24 weeks after treatment. Secondary outcomes were hours of sleep, Short Form-36 (SF-36) life quality questionnaire, and adverse events. We used Review Manager 5.3 for the data analyses.ResultsTwelve RCTs were included (n=495). Pain scores in the BTX-A group were significantly lower compared to the saline group at 4 weeks (mean difference [MD] =-1.64, 95% CI [-3.21, -0.07], P=0.04), 12 weeks (MD =-1.49, 95% CI [-2.05, -0.93], P<0.00001), and 24 weeks (MD =-1.61, 95% CI [-2.81, -0.40], P=0.009). There were no significant differences in hours of sleep, SF-36 questionnaire, or the incidence of injection pain or hematoma between the two groups. No serious adverse events associated with BTX-A were noted. Fourteen out of 108 patients (12.9%) with trigeminal neuralgia experienced mild facial asymmetry after the BTX-A treatment.ConclusionBased on the current evidence, BTX-A may be an effective and safe option for the treatment of neuralgia. Due to the limited number of patients included in this meta-analysis, more trials are still needed to confirm these results.

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