Botulinum toxin (BT) has changed from a deadly poison to a novel therapeutic principle for a large number of disorders in many medical areas.BT drugs are special in many ways: they are biologicals, their active ingredient BT is not patentable, their spectrum of clinical applications is extremely broad, their dose range is enormous, their mode of action is local and their life cycles are special.This review covers BT's therapeutic mode of action, time course of action, target tissues, pharmacological profile, adverse effects, interactions, potency labelling and antigenicity as well as BT's therapeutic preparations.
Keywords: Adverse effects; Antigenicity; Botulinum toxin; Clinical pharmacology; Interactions; Mode of action; Pharmacological profile; Potency labelling; Target tissues; Therapeutic preparations; Time course.