Stereotactic retransplantation in Parkinson's disease: clinical, imaging and electrophysiological evidence of adrenal brain graft viability

In March 1993, a patient with idiopathic Parkinson disease who had received an adrenal brain autograft 6 years before underwent bilateral stereotactic transplantation of a mesencephalic cell suspension into the striatum, in order to prevent further deterioration in his neurological condition. During the CT-guided surgical planning and the transplantation procedures, electrophysiological evidence of the adrenal graft viability was assessed. Based on these findings, we drew the preliminary conclusion that the chromaffin tissue implanted in April 1987 is still functional, which explains the clinical evolution of this patient during the postoperative long-term follow-up

CT-oriented microrecording guide selective thalamotomy

A further trial of CT-oriented microrecording guided stereotactic selective thalamotomy was conducted at the centro Internacional de Restauraciøn Neuroløgica, Havana City as treatment of resting tremor in 11 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) and in 3 other patients with intentional tremor associated with multisystemic atrophy and cerebral palsy. Three of the parkinsonian patients had undergone fetal mesencephalic tissue transplantation with significant improvement of the most debilitating symptoms of PD and stabilization the motor state, but predominantly unilateral tremor had impaired them progressively despite increased levodopa doses. A Leksell frame was used with a novel surgical planning system and electrophysiological recording to identify the optimal target point inside the ventralis intermedius. In all but case, the tremor was totally arrested. No persistent complications were observed