Witt et al. report the UCSF and Toronto Western Hospital experiences with GPi DBS for cervical dystonia. Patients with cranial involvement or mild upper extremity dystonia were not excluded. With 28 patients, this is the largest retrospective cohort in the literature. Presumably, based upon their inclusion of patients operated upon between 1996 and 2006, some of these patients were previously reported. Patients experienced a mean of 55.6% +/- 24.4% improvement in TWSTRS scores. Patients with baseline laterocollis did not do as well. The optimal stimulation parameters and electrode location within the GPi are not clear. There was not enough power in the statistics to determine whether age, duration of disease or severity of disease influence surgical outcome.
Source
National Center for Biotechnology Information