Transplantation of adrenal medullary tissue to caudate nucleus using stereotactic techniques

Stereotactic techniques were used to transplant adrenal medullary tissue to the head of the right caudate nucleus in 12 patients with Parkinson's disease. No significant lasting complications were seen. All patients had an initial improvement. 11 of the 12 patients remain improved over their preoperative condition after 6-18 months, 3 with good results and 9 with only modest improvement. At 6 months, the mean Schwab and England score had improved from 59.2 +/- 18.8 preoperatively to 75.8 +/- 15.1 (p less than or equal to 0.01) and the mean Hoehn and Yahr scale had improved from 3.42 +/- 0.90 to 2.92 +/- 0.63 (p less than or equal to 0.01).