[Treatment of vegetative status with dorsum column stimulation]

We have already reported that DCS (Dorsum Column Stimulation) alleviates the clinical symptoms of patients in vegetative status. Since then, we have accumulated information about 23 cases that have been treated by DCS therapy. In this paper, we describe the clinical outcome and compare cases where the treatment was effective with those where it was non-effective to evaluate the indications for further use of this treatment.

1) Eight of these cases showed good clinical improvement. 2) Most of the cases where the treatment was effective were young. Starting neurostimulation early brought about better clinical effects. 3) The clinical effects appeared 1-12 months after the start of the neurostimulation. 4) CT findings in the cases which had been treated effectively showed no marked cerebral atrophy, and no bilateral large diffuse low-density areas not involving the thalamus. Neither did they show any definite and large low-density areas in the brainstem. In conclusion, when the dorsum column was stimulated to treat vegetative status in which CT disclosed none of the abnormal findings described above, it increased r-CBF, enhanced the metabolism of catecholamine, and brought clinical improvement.