Preliminary results in surgery of Parkinson's disease

The authors present the preliminary results of 20 patients selected to be operated on between January 1996 and April 1997. These patients presented one of the present indications for stereotactic posteroventral pallidotomy (PVP), such as: rigidity, akinesia/bradykinesia, gait dysfunction, drug induced dyskinesias and tremor. Every patient of this protocol was evaluated by: UPDRS score, Schwab and England scale, Hoehn and Yahr Staging Scale before and after surgery. The results in 3 months showed a remarkable improvement after PVP (P < 0.01) in all functional assessments, except for facial expression, speech and posture. The morbidity was 5%. 5 patients (25%) who were in Hoehn and Yahr 5 underwent a bilateral simultaneous PVP. In 5 patients (25%), who had tremor, during the PVP, VIM thalamotomy was added. These preliminary results, suggest that PVP is highly effective for PD symptoms.