No abstract

Based on the results of thalamotomies described by Hassler in 1970, the authors performed bilateral thalamic high-frequency stimulation (HFS) in three patients with intractable Tourette syndrome (TS). In this report they describe the long-term effects. Three male patients (42, 28, and 45 years of age) had manifested motor and vocal tics since early childhood. The diagnosis of TS was made according to the criteria of the Tourette Syndrome Classification Study Group. Any drug or alternative treatment had been either ineffective or only temporarily effective in all three patients. There was no serious comorbidity. The target for stimulation was chosen at the level of the centromedian nucleus, substantia periventricularis, and nucleus ventrooralis internus. After 2 weeks of test stimulation, the pulse generators were implanted. After a follow-up period of 5 years in the patient in Case 1, 1 year in the patient in Case 2, and 8 months in the patient in Case 3, all major motor and vocal tics had disappeared and no serious complications had occurred. When stimulation was applied at the voltage necessary to achieve an optimal result on the tics, a slight sedative effect was noted in all three patients. In the patients in Cases 1 and 3 there were stimulation-induced changes in sexual behavior. Chronic thalamic HFS may be an effective and safe treatment for medically intractable TS in adult patients. Unwanted stimulation-induced side effects may occur.

No abstract

Intraoperative direct electrical stimulation (DES) is increasingly used in patients operated on for tumours in eloquent areas. Although a positive impact of DES on postoperative linguistic outcome is generally advocated, information about the neurolinguistic methods applied in awake surgery is scarce. We developed for the first time a standardised Dutch linguistic test battery (measuring phonology, semantics, syntax) to reliably identify the critical language zones in detail. A normative study was carried out in a control group of 250 native Dutch-speaking healthy adults. In addition, the clinical application of the Dutch Linguistic Intraoperative Protocol (DuLIP) was demonstrated by means of anatomo-functional models and five case studies. A set of DuLIP tests was selected for each patient depending on the tumour location and degree of linguistic impairment. DuLIP is a valid test battery for pre-, intraoperative and postoperative language testing and facilitates intraoperative mapping of eloquent language regions that are variably located.

In this report, we describe the effects of bilateral thalamic stimulation in one patient and of bilateral pallidal stimulation in another patient. Both patients suffered from intractable Tourette's syndrome (TS). Any conservative treatment had failed or had been stopped because of unbearable side effects in the 2 patients. In both cases, there was no comorbidity except for associated behavioral symptoms (compulsions). Electrodes were implanted at the level of the medial part of the thalamus (centromedian nucleus, the substantia periventricularis, and the nucleus ventro-oralis internus) in one patient and in the posteroventral part of the globus pallidus internus (GPi) in the other patient. In both cases, deep brain stimulation (DBS) resulted in a substantial reduction of tics and compulsions. These data show that bilateral DBS of the thalamus as well as of the GPi can have a good effect on tics and behavioral symptoms in patients suffering from intractable TS.