[New stereotactic treatment of spasmodic torticollis with a brain stimulation system (author's transl)]

The author reports here on a new method for treating spasmodic torticollis with the permanent implantation of a brain stimulation system (Medtronic) in the extrapyramidal-motor thalamic nuclei (V.o.a./V.o.i.) and the subthalamic zona incerta including the pyramidal tracts H1 and H2 (according to Forel). Thanks to stimulation which lasts 30--40 minutes and is determined and undertaken by the seven patients themselves, control over the position and the morbility of the head is attained while simultaneously suppressing the symptoms of spasmodic torticollis. This new stereotactic and functional method of neurosurgical treatment for functional disturbances of the motor systems is not destructive and entails neither operative complications nor side-effects.