Movement Disorders after Traumatic Brain Injury

ABSTRACT

Traumatic brain injury can cause movement disorders such as tremor, dystonia, myoclonus, parkinsonism and chorea. After the severe traumatic brain injury, movement disorders have been reported in 13 to 66% of patients and 20% of cases combined with weakness, spasticity, cognitive impairment and ataxia. Postural/kinetic tremor, which is the most common type of movement disorder after traumatic brain injury, may be transient or persistent however the other syndromes tend to persist and produce significant impairment in activity of daily living. The symptomatic relief can generally be achieved with medical treatment and some cases with neurosurgical intervention such as functional stereotactic surgery or deep brain stimulation. This article reviews the epidemiology, underlying mechanism, the type and treatment of movement disorders follow traumatic brain injury.