Evaluation of the efficacy of cervical perivascular sympathectomy on drooling in children with athetoid cerebral palsy.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of cervical perivascular sympathectomy (CPVS) for drooling in children with athetoid cerebral palsy (ACP). METHODS: The severity and frequency of drooling and the amount of salivation of 32 ACP children with drooling were evaluated before CPVS and at 4th, 12th and 24 weeks postoperatively by the teacher drooling scale (TDS) and salivary flow rate (SFR). RESULTS: Fifteen children exhibited improvements on drooling according to the TDS score at 4th week after surgery (P < 0.05). Later, the number of children decreased to 10 at 12th week (P < 0.05) and to 8 at 24 week after surgery (P < 0.05). SFR was 0.67 mg/min at baseline, which decreased to 0.58 mg/min (P < 0.05) at 4th week after surgery. However, SFR showed a gradual increase at 12th week and 24 week with no significant difference. CONCLUSIONS: Although CPVS was effective in improving drooling in some children with ACP, the results were not satisfactory. Thus, CPVS still needs to be cautiously used. Furthermore, more rigorous clinical studies should be performed to detect the effectiveness and safety of this procedure.