Effects on cognition of stereotactic lesional surgery for the treatment of tremor in multiple sclerosis.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the effect of stereotactic lesional surgery for treatment of tremor in multiple sclerosis on cognition.


METHODS
Eleven patients (3 males, 8 females) with multiple sclerosis participated in the study. Six subjects comprised the surgical group and five the matched control group. All patients were assessed at baseline and three months using a neuropsychological test battery that included measures of intellectual ability, memory, language, perception and executive function.


RESULTS
There were no significant differences between the surgical and control groups and no change from pre to post testing except for a decline in scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), WAIS-R Digit Span and Verbal Fluency in the surgical group.


CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that stereotactic lesional surgery does not result in major cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis. However, the decline in MMSE scores, digit span and verbal fluency require further investigation in a larger sample.
Jahanshahi
Marjan
M
Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience & Movement Disorders, UCL Institute of Neurology, The National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, London, UK. m.jahanshahi@ion.ucl.ac.uk
Pieter
Socorro
S
Alusi
Sundus H
SH
Jones
Catherine R G
CR
Glickman
Scott
S
Stein
John
J
Aziz
Tipu
T
Bain
Peter G
PG
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012691:Serial Learning; D013028:Space Perception; D013238:Stereotaxic Techniques / Q000009:adverse effects; D013788:Thalamus / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014202:Tremor / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D014706:Verbal Learning