Bilateral subthalamic deep brain stimulation for camptocormia associated with Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND

Few multiple case studies of the effects of deep brain stimulation for camptocormia associated with Parkinson's disease have been reported. Although deep brain stimulation was in some cases not effective against camptocormia, it is unclear in which types of patients it was effective in treating camptocormia.

OBJECTIVE

We treated 4 Parkinson's disease patients with camptocormia and evaluated their paraspinal muscle status by computed tomography to specify the characteristics of cases of effective treatment.

METHODS

The 2 female and 2 male patients in this study were 60-69 years old, with a disease duration from onset to surgery of 7-13 years and a follow-up period of 18-40 months. The electrodes were implanted bilaterally in the subthalamic nuclei.

RESULTS

Camptocormia was improved in 3 cases, and was unchanged in the remaining case although other parkinsonian symptoms improved. The computed tomography number of paraspinal muscle in the unimproved patient was much smaller than that in the improved patients.

CONCLUSIONS

A relationship may exist between improvement of camptocormia and severity of paraspinal muscle degeneration.