Abstract
BACKGROUND: Although the short- and long-term effectiveness of abobotulinumtoxinA (Dysport(®)/Azzalure(®)) for glabellar line (GL) treatment is well established, reporting of subject satisfaction over repeat treatment cycles is limited. The APPEAL study aimed to assess subject satisfaction with long-term GL treatment with abobotulinumtoxinA in a real-life setting. METHODS: APPEAL was a noninterventional, prospective, longitudinal study in subjects administered ≥ 3 abobotulinumtoxinA injection cycles for moderate-to-severe GL, according to routine clinical practice. Subjects completed a satisfaction questionnaire at 3 weeks (± 7 days) after each cycle. Primary endpoint included subjects' overall satisfaction with GL after three injection cycles. Secondary endpoints included satisfaction after Cycles 1 and 2 and factors associated with satisfaction after each cycle. Physician satisfaction was also assessed after Cycles 1 and 3. RESULTS: Of 150 subjects enrolled, 135 completed the overall subject satisfaction questionnaire after Cycle 3. At 3 weeks after Cycle 3, 99.3% of subjects were 'very satisfied' (74.1%) or 'satisfied' (25.2%) with GL. Levels of subject satisfaction and associated factors after Cycles 1 and 2 were as large and significant as after Cycle 3 (83-100%, depending on question). Physicians' satisfaction with GL appearance, facial expression, and overall satisfaction was almost complete after the first injection (≥ 97.4%) and unanimous after the third (100%). CONCLUSIONS: In the APPEAL study, overall satisfaction was high after three abobotulinumtoxinA injection cycles for GL based on both subjects' (99.3%) and physicians' (100.0%) assessments. High levels of subject satisfaction reported after Cycle 1 were maintained with repeated injections. No new safety signals were observed. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE IV: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 . Trial registration NCT02353897.