J Korean Acad Rehabil Med.  2010 Apr;34(2):185-188.

Short Term Effects of Transdermal Scopolamine Patch for Drooling of Saliva in Patients with Cerebral Palsy

• Roh SW
• Kim C
• Kim T
• Lee MH
• Lee KH

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the clinical usefulness of the transdermal scopolamine patch applied to control drooling of saliva in patients with cerebral palsy. METHOD: We enrolled twenty two patients with cerebral palsy residing in a rehabilitation center. The mean age of the patients was 24.0 years old. Transdermal scopolamine patch was applied to the patients for 2 weeks. We measured drooling quantity, severity of drooling, and visual analog scale of care givers' labor intensity at pre-application, post 1 week, and post 2 weeks.
RESULTS
Drooling quantity decreased significantly from 4.1+/-1.9 ml to 2.8+/-1.5 ml at post 1 week (p<0.01), and 2.2+/-1.6 ml at post 2 weeks (p<0.01). Severity of drooling decreased from 4.1+/-0.8 to 2.9+/-1.1 at post 2 weeks (p<0.01). Visual analog scale of care givers' labor intensity decreased from 78.2+/-17.4 (mm) to 52.7+/-18.6 at post 1 week (p<0.01), and 45.9+/-22.8 at post 2 weeks (p<0.01).
CONCLUSION
These findings suggested that the transdermal scopolamine patch is effective to reduce the drooling of saliva in patients with cerebral palsy within short term.

Keyword

Drooling; Saliva; Scopolamine patch

MeSH Terms

Cerebral Palsy
Humans
Rehabilitation Centers
Saliva
Scopolamine Hydrobromide
Sialorrhea
Scopolamine Hydrobromide