The Expansion of Botulinumtoxin in the Clinical Care of Parkinson Disease: Laxman Bahroo, DO
The professor of neurology and residency program director at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital discussed the value of educating clinicians on the utility of botulinumtoxins in PD care. [WATCH TIME: 3 minutes]
WATCH TIME: 3 minutes
“Unlike oral medications, this class of medications is more needy, hands on, more delicate in the sense that there are multiple steps to becoming a successful injector: understanding the disease state, being comfortable with anatomy, to be comfortable with being able to set expectations for patients—I think that’s a very important component of it. If we don’t set expectations with our patients that are realistic, our patients have expectations that may or may not be achievable.”
Botulinumtoxins are a common class of injectable medications that have grown in use over many years. Originally approved for a limited number of indications, the class has expanded to include a variety of treatment purposes, making them a useful option for physicians who are seeking to address the symptoms and disorders that patients experience—ranging from sialorrhea to migraine.
Despite their usefulness, though, their rapid indication growth has made keeping medical education up to date on their use a challenge. This has resulted in a clinical community with a varying range of understanding of the class of medications, largely dependent on when the clinician in question received their medical training. Although, this situation is improving, thanks in part to individuals like Laxman Bahroo, DO, a professor of neurology and the residency program director at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
At the 2nd Annual Advanced Therapeutics in Movement and Related Disorders (ATMRD) Congress, held by the PMD Alliance from June 8 to 11, 2023, in Washington, DC, Bahroo and several colleagues spoke in a series of “Master Class” sessions that covered everything from the basics of botulinumtoxin use to hands on practice with injections. All of this was done with the goal of educating the movement disorder clinicians in attendance on the usefulness of these therapies for addressing a range of symptoms that are relevant to Parkinson disease (PD) care.
Bahroo sat down at the meeting with NeurologyLive® to provide his insight into the current understanding of these therapies, and how they fit into the existing treatment paradigm. He offered his perspectives on the need to provide education on their use, and how the individualized nonmotor and other issues experienced by patients with PD can create an opportunity to use these agents in clinical care.
