Botulinum toxin as an alternative treatment in patients with achalasia

Background: achalasia is found among the diseases that affect the esophagus. Although there is no curative treatment for this disease, there are several palliative therapeutic strategies; in recent years the use of botulinum toxin has been increasingly discussed. Objective: to evaluate the effectiveness of botulinum toxin as an alternative treatment in patients with achalasia in Camagüey. Methods: a descriptive, longitudinal and prospective study was carried out. The study universe increased to a total of 13 patients. The data was recorded in a collection form. For better understanding the information was shown in tables. Results: six patients, for 46,15 % refused to receive another treatment. A satisfactory result of this short-term therapeutic option was found in 100 %. There were no recurrences of the disease during the first six months of the treatment, in none of the patients. More than half of the treated cases did not present adverse reactions, with 61,54 %. Conclusions: the treatment was applied when most of the patients refused to receive another therapeutic option. The short-term evaluation showed that all patients reported being asymptomatic, and recurrences appeared between nine and 12 months. Patients who did not present adverse effects predominated. DeCS: ESOPHAGEAL ACHALASIA/drug therapy; ESOPHAGEAL ACHALASIA/diagnosis; BOTULINUM TOXINS/therapeutic use; BOTULINUM TOXINS /drug effects; DRUG EVALUATION.