Objective: To describe real-life practice and person-centred outcomes in the treatment of poststroke upper limb spasticity with botulinum toxin A (BoNT-A).
Design: Observational, prospective study.
Setting: 84 secondary care centres in 22 countries.
Participants: 456 adults (≥18 years) with poststroke upper limb spasticity treated with one cycle of BoNT-A.
Methods/outcomes: Muscle selection, BoNT-A preparation, injection technique and timing of follow-up were conducted according to routine practice for each centre.
Primary outcome: achievement of the patient's primary goal for treatment using goal-attainment scaling (GAS). Measurements of spasticity, standardised outcome measures and global benefits were also recorded.
Results: The median number of injected muscles was 5 (range 1-15) and the most frequently injected muscles were the long finger flexors, followed by biceps and brachioradialis. The median (range) follow-up time was 14 (2.6 to 32.3) weeks. The common primary treatment goals were passive function (132 (28.9%)), active function (104 (22.8%)), pain (61 (13.4%)), impairment (105 (23%)), involuntary movement (41 (9%)) and mobility (10 (2.2%)). Overall, 363 (79.6%) (95% CI 75.6% to 83.2%) patients achieved (or overachieved) their primary goal and 355 (75.4%) (95% CI 71.2% to 79.2%) achieved their secondary goal. Mean (SD) change from baseline in GAS T-scores was 17.6 (11.0) (95% CI 16.4 to 18.8; p<0.001). GAS T-scores were strongly correlated with global benefit and other standard measures (correlations of 0.38 and 0.63, respectively; p<0.001).
Conclusions: BoNT-A demonstrated a clinically significant effect on goal attainment for the real-life management of upper-limb spasticity following stroke. The study confirms the feasibility of a common international data set to collect systematic prospective data, and of using GAS to capture person-centred outcomes relating to passive and active functions and to pain.
Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01020500.
Keywords: botulinum toxin A; goal attainment scaling; post-stroke spasticity; stroke rehabilitation.