Deep Brain Stimulation for the Treatment of Hemichorea: Case Series and Literature Review

Abstract

Background: Hemichorea (HC) and its severe form hemiballismus (HB) are rare movement disorders which can be medically refractory to treatments and may need surgical intervention.Case Report: We report 3 patients with HC-HB who had meaningful clinical improvement with unilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the globus pallidus interna (GPi). We identified 8 prior cases of HC-HB treated with GPi-DBS, and a majority of these patients experienced significant improvement in their symptoms.Discussion: GPi-DBS can be considered in medically refractory HC-HB in carefully selected patients. However, data is limited to small case series and further studies are needed.