In patients undergoing reconstructive surgery of the face, treatment with botulinum toxin A (BTX-A, or ‘Botox’) can improve the final appearance of surgical scars, reports a clinical trial in the March issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
“This study demonstrates that early post-surgical botulinum toxin injections can produce better, narrower, and flatter facial surgical scars,” according to the study by XiaoXi Lin, MD, PhD, and colleagues of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. The results add to the growing list of clinical applications for BTX-A — beyond its cosmetic use in treating facial lines and wrinkles.
The study included 16 patients undergoing facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at the authors’ department over a four-month period. The patients averaged 12 years of age. Most were undergoing surgery for some type of disfiguring facial birthmark, such as a melanocytic nevus or port wine stain.
