Deep brain stimulation in the treatment of torsion dystonia

Abstract

Objective To assess clinical efficacy of deep brain stimulation in the treatment of three cases of torsion dystonia (TD).Methods Two TD patients underwent bilateral globus pallidus internus deep brain stimulation (GPi-DBS).Another patient underwent bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation(STN-DBS).Preoperative and postoperative (3 months,6 months,12 months)Burke-Fahn-Marsden dystonia rating scale (BFMDRS) were performed on each patient.Results All patients experienced immediate improvement before starting stimulation.Three patients were followed-up over 12 months.The two patients with GPi-DBS showed improvement from 61％ to 98％.The patient with STN-DBS showed improvement from 40％ to 60％.All patients had no surgery-related complications and permanent side effects.Conclusions Stereotactic bilateral GPi-DBS or STN-DBS may be an effective and safe for the treatment of TD.However,the long-term effect should be followed up. Key words: Dystonia musculorum deformans; Deep brain stimulation; Globus pallidus internus ; Subthalamic nucleus