Botulinum Toxin Clinic

The Botulinum Toxin Clinic is included within the Movement Disorder Service.

It is a treatment which may benefit children with a movement disorder such as cerebral palsy or localised spasticity and dystonia, and involves injections of botulinum toxin into overactive muscles.

Referrals are received directly from the Movement Disorder Service, following a comprehensive screening assessment.

The team caring for your child will discuss with you fully what having these injections will involve. The child’s physiotherapist/occupational therapist is welcome to attend the clinic appointment with the family’s permission.

Parents are asked where possible to bring to the clinic their child’s usual walking aids and current orthotics. In order to assess the effects of treatment, the team will carefully examine your child’s range of movement both before and after injection.

A physiotherapist and doctor may perform a detailed movement test and take a video recording before treatment and at each follow-up appointment (typically three and seventeen weeks post-injection). These assessments generally take about an hour to perform.

The physiotherapist will liaise with your local physiotherapist about your child’s management following the injection session.

The appointment is a day procedure and your child will be admitted to Starfish (Rapid Assessment Neurology Unit) at Great Ormond Street Hospital. The injections involve being given oral sedation or occasionally a short general anaesthetic.

When you arrive, your child will be seen and examined by a doctor. The injections are carried out in the treatment room on Starfish (RANU) and take about five minutes.

Following the injections, your child should be able to go home within a few hours.

The Botulinum Toxin Clinic team consists of a consultant paediatric neurologist, a consultant developmental paediatrician, clinical specialist physiotherapists, and a specialist registrar.

Any queries should be directed to Lesley Katchburian, Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist.

You can contact the Botulinim Toxin Clinic on 020 7405 9200 ext 1198.