Pallidal Deep Brain Stimulation in the Treatment of Huntington’s Chorea

Abstract

Despite the success of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in various movement disorders, its use in Huntington´s Disease (HD) has been limited. So far, promising results of pallidal DBS have been reported in 7 patients with HD. We performed bilateral pallidal DBS in a 59 year old woman with HD since 12 years and severe motor symptoms. At the evaluation after 12 months the effect was deemed satisfactory mainly concerning the patient's choreatic symptoms. However, the improvement according to the unified Huntington's disease rating scale was modest, with a score reduction from 92 to 81.