title: Subthalamic nucleus stimulation and gait in Parkinson's Disease: a not always fruitful relationship.
abstract: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) provides efficient treatment for the alleviation of motor signs in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD), but its specific effects on gait is sometimes less successful as it may even lead to an aggravation of freezing of gait. To better understand when axial symptoms can be expected to improve and when they may worsen or be resistant to STN-DBS, we propose here a narrative review that considers the recent literature evidences based on instrumental gait analysis data. Our aim is to report about the efficacy of STN-DBS on PD gait, analyzing the clinical and procedural factors involved, and discussing the strategies for optimizing such effectiveness in patients with advanced PD.
authors.affiliation: "G. Brotzu" General Hospital, Department of Neurology, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cossu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical, Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy. Electronic address: massimiliano.pau@dimcm.unica.it.
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pau
mesh_terms: D046690:Deep Brain Stimulation; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D020531:Subthalamic Nucleus
keywords: Deep brain stimulation (DBS); Gait; Kinematics; Parkinson’s Disease (PD); Subthalamic nucleus (STN)