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. (J Korean Acad Rehab Med 2010; 34: 185-188)
