Update of Chronic Cerebellar Stimulation for Spasticity and Epilepsy

CBF changes in drug naive juvenile myoclonic epilepsy patients

“…In some animal models of epilepsy [22,42], electrical stimulation of the cerebellum was found to suppress seizures. Cerebellar stimulating implants were tried in refractory epilepsy patients with varying degrees of success [7,12,24,46]. These observations suggest that cerebellum has some inhibitory effects on seizure generation.…”

Diencephalic Seizures

“…A mixture of facilitatory and inhibitory effects upon the development of limbic seizures was observed in response to electrical stimulation of the mes encephalic, hypothalamic, and thalamic components of the mesence phalic reticular system [2], That mesodiencephalic stimulation tends to curtail forebrain seizure production is also supported by observation in which lesions of the mesodiencephaion were found to facilitate the prolongation of limbic seizures [4], Cerebellar stimulation was also found to inhibit cortically elicited seizures [5,8]. Cerebellar stimulation in the human has been reported to stop some forms of telencephalic major motor and complex partial seizures dramatically [6,7].…”

Reduction of Intractable Seizures Using Cerebellar Stimulation

“…From February 1974 to June 1982, 329 spastic patients (89% with cerebral palsy) and 6 patients with intractable epilepsy underwent the implantation of cerebellar stimulating systems [2]. Of the 329 spastic patients, 95 (29%) had a history of having at least one seizure during their lifetime and were split into two groups: group 1, 65 patients (20%) who had a history of seizures from birth up to 3 years prior to implan tation of the cerebellar stimulator; group 2, 30 patients (9%) who had seizures during a period 3 years prior to implantation.…”