Botox is commonly used for cosmetic purposes and skin care. But it turns out, Botox injections can also be used to help treat a rare eye disorder where there are threads that appear in the eyes.
Botox is short for Botulinum Toxin, the toxin produced by Clostridium Botulinum bacteria.
Botox is often used to rejuvenate the face quickly. For example, botox injections in the area around the eyes can eliminate frown lines on the corner of the eye.
Botox is often used to raise eyebrows and reduce excessive sweating in the armpits or palms.
A study involving 33 patients with a disease called keratitis filament, where the dead cells on the surface of the eye together and form a filament or thread. This disorder causes patients to feel as if something is jammed in the eye.
After an average of 2 years of botox injections into the eyelid muscle, 29 patients (88%) experienced improvement in the disease. All patients in the study had previously tried other treatments, including eliminating the filament or take medicine to treat inflammation of the eyes, but to no avail.
Although there are no significant side effects, one of the shortcomings of this treatment is that many patients who require multiple injections in order to effect a new look. On average each patient received four injections. Patients were evaluated every 6-12 weeks, and additional injections will be given if necessary.
The exact cause is still unknown filamentary keratitis. Some of the symptoms that most often accompanies the disease is dry eye. These symptoms are more commonly experienced by women and the elderly.
Because the filaments attached to the surface of the eye, blinking eyes will aggravate the disorder, which causes pain, chronic inflammation and tearing of the eye surface. Finally there a vicious cycle in which the patients responded to reflex blinking when the object is attached to the eye, but it makes the disease worse.
"Breaking the vicious cycle is important to treat cases of filamentary keratitis. Botox can help treat the disease because it reduces the frequency of blinking and eyelid pressure on the surface of the eye," said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston as reported by FoxNews on Wednesday (11/4 / 2012).
The findings, published the journal Archives of Ophthalmology does not completely cure this mysterious disorder of the eye, but at least it can ease the problems. Experiments and a larger therapeutic treatment necessary to verify the results.
