Bilateral Chronic Electrostimulation of... : Neurosurgery (original) (raw)
Technique and Application
Bilateral Chronic Electrostimulation of Ventroposterolateral Pallidum
A New Therapeutic Approach for Alleviating All Parkinsonian Symptoms
Department of Neurosurgery, Klinik im Park, Zürich, Switzerland
Reprint requests: Jean Siegfried, M.D., Department of Neurosurgery, Klinik im Park, Seestrasse 220, Zürich, 8027 Switzerland.
Received, February 22, 1994. Accepted, June 23, 1994.
Abstract
THE GLOBAL IMPROVEMENT of all parkinsonian symptoms after stereotactic pallidotomy has been demonstrated by Leksell. Recently, Laitinen, reevaluating this target in the neurosurgical treatment of Parkinson's disease, confirmed the real value of this approach, and emphasized the necessity of locating the lesion in the ventroposterolateral part of the pallidum internum. Because we know that high-frequency stimulation of the ventrolateral part of the thalamus has the same clinical effect on tremor as high-frequency coagulation, this technique has now been applied bilaterally in one session in three patients who have severe Parkinson's disease, with akinesia and levodopa-induced dyskinesias in the foreground. The very satisfactory clinical results, up to 12 months in the first case, confirm the observation of Laitinen, but with the difference that the approach discussed here is both nondestructive and reversible, and unwanted side effects are avoided.
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