title: Recovery from Chronic Diseases of Consciousness: State of the Art in Neuromodulation for Persistent Vegetative State and Minimally Conscious State.
abstract: Chronic diseases of consciousness (CDC) can still be considered a challenging frontier for modern medicine, probably because of their not completely understood physiopathological mechanisms. Following encouraging evidence on cerebral hemodynamics, some authors have hypothesized a role for neuromodulation in the treatment of CDC patients. In the past 40 years, spinal cord stimulation (SCS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) have been used experimentally for the treatment of patients in a severe altered state of consciousness, with some interesting but not conclusive results. The present review summarizes the data currently available in the literature on this particular and debated topic. On these grounds, further clinical studies are needed to better understand the altered dynamics of neuronal network circuits in CDC patients as a step towards novel therapeutic strategies.
authors.affiliation: Neurosurgery, Catholic University Medical School, Rome, Italy. pierpaolo.mattogno@gmail.com.|Neurosurgery - A, Gemelli Hospital, Largo A. Gemelli, 8, Rome, 00168, Italy. pierpaolo.mattogno@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Pier Paolo
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Mattogno
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Neurosciences, Policlinico "G. Rodolico" University Hospital, Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Barbagallo
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neurosciences, School of Medicine, Neurosurgical Clinic, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Gerardo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Iacopino
authors.affiliation: Neurosurgery, Catholic University Medical School, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pappalardo
authors.affiliation: Neurosurgery, Catholic University Medical School, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: LA Rocca
authors.affiliation: Neurosurgery, Catholic University Medical School, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Signorelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, XinHua Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200092, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurosurgery, Medical School, Catholic University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Visocchi
mesh_terms: D046690:Deep Brain Stimulation; D006801:Humans; D018458:Persistent Vegetative State / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D062187:Spinal Cord Stimulation
keywords: DBS; Disorders of consciousness; Minimally conscious state; Neuromodulation; SCS; Vegetative state