They have drooping eyelids and lips.
Weakness in the neck and difficulty swallowing.
The symptoms may appear a few weeks after beauty treatments with the neurotoxin botulinum toxin, better known as botox.
The problem is that many patients do not connect the problems with the procedure and therefore do not tell the doctors that they have had botox injected.
This leads to long care carousels because doctors believe that patients have suffered a stroke or that they suffer from serious neuromuscular diseases such as MG or ALS - an incurable disease that usually leads to death within a few years.
The top of an iceberg
At the Department of Neurophysiology at the University Hospital, several cases have been discovered in the last three years.
- We have had about 20 patients with botox injuries.
It's probably just the tip of the iceberg, says Anna Rostedt Punga.
Anna Rostedt Punga thinks that there is a frighteningly large amount of ignorance about the neurological symptoms that can occur after botox surgery - both in healthcare and among ordinary people.
- Doctors should ask all patients if they have received botox when they come in with drooping eyelids and have difficulty swallowing and talking.
Incorrect diagnoses
The risk, she says, is that patients receive incorrect diagnoses and aggressive treatment with strong side effects.
- These long investigations also generate large costs that burden care unnecessarily.
Most of her patients have suffered injuries after beauty treatments.
But there are also a few who have been affected by medical botox treatments for migraines, for example.
The symptoms often disappear after a few months as the effect of the neurotoxin decreases.
Why do these complications occur?
- They can occur if you have injected the neurotoxin incorrectly, especially in the wrong muscles or given too high a dose.
Then it spreads very quickly to important muscles nearby which, for example, are used for both swallowing and breathing.
And if the doses are high enough, the muscles can be paralyzed.