Botox to Relieve Foot Pain in Diabetics

Doctors in Taiwan may have discovered another use for botox besides the wide list of cosmetic and medical complaints it is already used for. In the past diabetics who have suffered chronic foot pain due to nerve damage as a result of their illness, have been offered very little relief. Now a team at Taipei Medical University may have found a way to alleviate at least some of the discomfort.

The study comprised of 18 Type 2 diabetics who were each asked at the start to rate their level of pain between 0-10 ,with the average result coming out at 6.36. The group were then split in two and half given botulinum toxin type A injections and half given saline. A few weeks into the study 12 were crossed over so that they were receiving the opposite treatment. The intradermal botox injections were placed in 12 sites across the top of the foot.

At the end of the 12 weeks, all those patients who had received botox had an average reduction in score of 2.53 points compared to 0.53 for those who solely had the saline injections. Within 12 weeks of the injections, 44 percent of the botox patients had reduced this further to 3 points less. An additional positive side effect was that they reported being able to sleep better (possibly because they were no longer in such pain).

This treatment is still in evaluation to discover optimum dosage and other related factors.

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