A Review of Tolerance and Safety Profiles of Long-Term Botulinum Neurotoxin Type A in Asian Patients with Hemifacial Spasm and Benign Essential Blepharospasm

This article reports the tolerance and long-term safety profiles of botulinum neurotoxin type A among Asian patients with benign essential blepharospasm (BEB) and hemifacial spasm (HFS). We performed a retrospective review of clinical documents and procedure records of consecutive BEB and HFS patients receiving onabotulinum toxin A (Botox) treatment in our clinic over the past 20 years. We reviewed the information of 105 patients diagnosed with BEB (n = 31) and HFS (n = 74). All of the patients were Asian. The mean age of disease onset was 59 (range 37–80) years old for BEB and 61 (range 31–83) for HFS. The mean follow up was 84 (range 12–240) months and the mean number of sessions per patient was 19 (range 1–61). The botulinum toxin dose per session increased significantly in both BEB (16.5 versus 21.6 units, p