BOTOX VERSUS OTHER MEDICATIONS.

Introduction

Botox, known as Botulinum Toxin(BTX), is a drug that given to patients to treat neuromuscular conditions. Botox works by preventing signals from the nerve cells reaching muscle, effectively leaving the muscles without instructions to contract, therefore paralyzing them. It can be manufactured commercially for a variety of cosmetic, research and medical applications. Also, it can help reduce the severity of symptoms for different medical conditions.  These include treatment for chronic migraines, lower back pain, cervical dystonia (neck pain), blepharospasm (uncontrolled muscle contraction) and strabismus (crossed eyes).There has been much media coverage of the use of Botox to control pain and especially in the area of lower back pain. In fact this has led many patients to ask for Botox as a treatment, especially paravertebral Botox injections. But there is most common side effect of Botox which are bruising, or swelling at the injection site. Additional side effects that may be encountered include headache, nausea, and flu-like symptoms. Therefore, there are other treatments for pain relief that would be a medication, steroid injection and lumbar facet joint blocks. Steroid injection is to provide pain relief by reducing the inflammation of the nerve roots as they exit the spine. This will not correct the pre-existing medical problem, but it may improve the level of pain. Also, facet joint infection consist of a mixture of local anesthetic and the steroid medication which blocks the pain. We tried to evaluate that Botox is indeed a good solution for refractory back pain and that it may well be a good alternative to surgery or to continued use of facet blocks or lumbar facet blocks and may help patients be less reliant on pain killers in order to control their back pain.