Pedunculopontine nucleus deep brain stimulation in a patient with primary progressive freezing gait disorder.
BACKGROUND
Pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) has recently been suggested for treatment of medication-unresponsive gait and axial symptoms in Parkinson's disease. Patients with the rare primary progressive freezing gait disorder (PPFG) have similar disabling symptoms and few therapeutic options. We report here on our experience with PPN DBS in treating a 76-year-old man with medication-refractory PPFG.


METHODS
The patient was treated with staged PPN DBS and underwent careful pre- and postoperative clinical evaluations up to 12 months after surgery.


RESULTS
PPN DBS resulted in only mild improvement in symptoms after 12 months of stimulation.


CONCLUSIONS
In this single case of a patient with PPFG, PPN DBS served only a limited role in treating his symptoms and adds to the very limited published literature describing patients treated with DBS at this brain target.
Ostrem
Jill L
JL
Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, Center for the Surgical Treatment of Movement Disorders, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. jill.ostrem@ucsf.edu
Christine
Chadwick W
CW
Glass
Graham A
GA
Schrock
Lauren E
LE
Starr
Philip A
PA
D000368:Aged; D046690:Deep Brain Stimulation; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D005684:Gait; D020233:Gait Disorders, Neurologic / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D045042:Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome