Botulinum toxin type A for the treatment of facial rhytids is one of the most common aesthetic procedures used in the medical field. Up until now, Botulinum toxin injection using palpation method is the most commonly used technique. A much less used technique is electromyography-guided injection.
Electromyography is a technique that measures and records the electrical activity within muscles. It is usually used as a diagnostic tool to assess health of the muscular tissue and its neural supply. Alternatively, we can also utilize it to guide intramuscular drug administration and measure the amplitude of muscle activity and contraction.
Aim of the work
The aim of this study was to compare between the conventional palpation method of botulinum toxin type A injection and the electromyography-guided method using clinical parameters and electromyography analysis.
Subjects
The study was conducted on 15 healthy-looking female subjects with visible glabellar rhytids when frowning. All participants were recruited from the outpatient clinic of Dermatology Department, Main University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University. The mean age was 46.27 ± 6.31 with a range from 33 to 59 years. All 15 subjects completed the study.
Each subject provided a right and left corrugator supercilii muscles to the study. Each muscle was divided into a body and a tail, each part injected separately (n=60).