Patient-Reported Satisfaction With BTXA Treatment Of Wrinkles On Upper Part Of The Face

BackgroundFacial rhytides are often unwelcome either because they are a sign of aging or because they can be misinterpreted and mistakenly perceived to stress,anxiety, annoyance,disapproval,or anger.As a result,they may seek treatment to achieve a more youthful appearance,to help them appear their best,to help prevent miscues of facial communication,or simply to feel better about their appearance.Since BTXA was approved for treating wrinkles by the Government of Canada in 2001,the United States,Europe and Japan had also approved soon after that.Since then,BTXA's application areas were expanding in cosmetic and plastic surgery.A lot of literatures have reported its efficacy and safety.However,patients' satisfaction is the key of success when using BTXA to treat the patient,it determines whether the patient will be benefit from the treatment,as the aim of all the treatments is to make patients happy.Not only that,whether the patients are willing to receive repeated injection is also closely related to their satisfaction. Though A lot of literatures reported their high satisfaction with BTXA,they did not use standard assessment methods.Of course,Patient satisfaction is multidimensional and a difficult concept to define and assess accurately and reliably.So,it is very important to adopt effective and standard method to assess patients' satisfaction.In 2003,Cox successfully designed and verified the validity and reliability of FTS questionnaire. 2007,Stotland applied such questionnaire,verified the efficacy of BTXA(20 IU) with glabella wrinkles,and set up an effective,reliable patient satisfaction assessment criteria with BTXA rhytidectomy.But no researchers have applied the questionnaire to give assessment of BTXA efficacy and satisfaction on the upper part facial wrinkles. In order to know that,we adopted FTS questionnaire to our patients,and,to improve the treatment and patients' satisfaction.MethodsFrom Jan 2007 to Sep 2008,a total of 38 patients underwent the treatment of BTXA rhytidectomy.15 patients were randomly selected to have FTS questionnaire.3 patients lost during follow up.In the end,the FTS score of 12 patients were analyzed by Microsoft excel 2003,also,the mean and standard bias were calculated.In the FTS questionnaire,the domain scores were calculated by taking the mean of all item scores in that domain.Patients with a mean score of at least 5 were considered to have achieved satisfaction in that domain.For each patient,the total score and the score for each of the domains were recorded.Result1.With BTXA treatment of the wrinkles on upper part of the face,10 patients (10/12,83.3%) showed their satisfaction with the effects,11 patients(11/12,91.7%) showed their satisfaction with the procedure and 11 patients(11/12,91.7%) showed their overall satisfaction.For the 14 items of the FTS questionair,12 of them were chosen satisfied(with every score＞5).2.All the patients thought it was very important to "look younger".3.Patients were more satisfied with the items of"time to onset","look younger"," no downtime"(score＞6),and neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the items of "competitive at work" and "side effects"(score＞4).ConclusionsPatients were satisfied with BTXA treatment of wrinkles on upper part of the face. The advantage of "time to onset","look younger"," no downtime" were the chief reasons attracted the patients.The patients were mostly women with the year of 38-51, and paid close attention to "look younger".Wrinkles on upper part of the face, especially fishtail lines,were the chief therapic location.Most people consented to the long-term,intermittent,and reduplicate treatment to maintain the effectiveness of BTXA.