title: Assessment of motor function after stereotactic pallidotomy.
abstract: Despite a paucity of controlled data, stereotactic pallidotomy is increasingly used for the treatment of advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). To study the efficacy of the procedure on the cardinal PD features of rigidity, tremor, bradykinesia, and postural instability, we blindly rated randomized videos of 34 patients recorded in the "off' state immediately before and 3 months after unilateral stereotactic lesioning of the globus pallidus internus. Total "off' time Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale motor scores improved 13.6% from 28.9 +/- 7.5 to 25.0 +/- 7.0 (p < 0.001). Particularly robust improvement was seen in contralateral tremor, gait, and arising from a chair (p < 0.001). Significant improvement was also seen in ipsilateral tremor, contralateral and some ipsilateral dexterity measures, and body bradykinesia. Most other features tended toward improvement but did not reach statistical significance. We conclude that pallidotomy is a safe and effective treatment of parkinsonian symptoms, many of which improve bilaterally.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: W G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Ondo
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jankovic
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sankhla
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ben-Arie
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Grossman
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Krauss
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005917:Globus Pallidus / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D009069:Movement Disorders / Q000601:surgery; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000601:surgery*; D016634:Radiosurgery; D011897:Random Allocation; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D014743:Videotape Recording