Postural stability in blepharospasm: the effects of dual-tasking and botulinum toxin therapy

BACKGROUND: Blepharospasm is a focal dystonia that presents as involuntary, intermittent, continuous contractions of the eyelids. Abnormal eyelid contractions in blepharospasm are expected to cause balance problems, but there is no clear information. OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to evaluate the effect of blepharospasm on postural stability (PS) in patients with blepharospasm. As a secondary endpoint, the efficacy of botulinum toxin type-A (BoNT-A) treatment on static balance in patients with blepharospasm was investigated. METHODS: Twenty-four patients with blepharospasm receiving regular BoNT-A injections and 20 age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls were included in the study. All subjects were evaluated on a static posturography force platform performing four tasks (eyes open (EO), eyes closed (EC), tandem Romberg (TR) and verbal cognitive task (COGT)). Evaluations of the patients were repeated 4 weeks after the injection. RESULTS: Pretreatment lateral and anterior–posterior sways, sway area and velocities of the sways were significantly higher in patients than controls during the COGT and TR (p<0.05). In the patient group, with EO and EC, a few parameters improved after BoNT-A injection. On the other hand, in the TR and COGT, most of the sway parameters and velocities improved significantly after treatment (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Blepharospasm may cause functional blindness in patients. This study demonstrated that PS worsens in patients with blepharospasm under dual-task conditions. BoNT-A injection treats the disease itself and, thus, markedly improves PS under dual-task conditions in blepharospasm.