Clinical evaluation of computed tomography-guided versus ventriculography-guided thalamotomy for movement disorders

38 patients with Parkinsonian or essential tremor who underwent thalamotomy based on ventriculographic coordinates were compared to 23 patients whose thalamotomy was performed on the basis of computed tomography (CT)-derived target coordinates. The comparison between the two groups concerned the age, sex, duration of disease, target side, intra-operative target correction, duration of postoperative stay in hospital, transient side-effects, permanent complication, and tremor alleviation. The study showed that the surgical results in terms of tremor control were the same in the two groups. However, the percentage of post-operative transient side-effects was higher and the duration of stay in hospital was longer for the ventriculographic patients than for the CT patients.