A new strategy for treating drug-resistant focal aware seizures: thalamic specific nuclei deep brain stimulation. Illustrative case.

Background: Focal aware seizures (FASs) are relatively common and frequently pharmaco-resistant. If the seizure onset zone (SOZ) is in eloquent cortical areas, making resective surgery risky and inadvisable, deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the anterior nucleus of the thalamus, which is efficacious in less than half of the cases, has been the main alternative. New targets should be searched to address this deficiency.

Bilateral Globus Pallidus Externus Deep Brain Stimulation for the Treatment of Refractory Tourette Syndrome: An Open Clinical Trial.

Objectives: We have previously proposed that Tourette syndrome (TS) is the clinical expression of the hyperactivity of globus pallidus externus (GPe) and various cortical areas. This study was designed to test this hypothesis by verifying the efficacy and safety of bilateral GPe deep brain stimulation (DBS) for treating refractory TS.

Materials And Methods: In this open clinical trial, 13 patients were operated on.

Ventral intermediate nucleus deep brain stimulation for treatment-resistant focal aware motor seizures: illustrative case.

Background: Resection of the seizure onset zone (SOZ) is considered the gold standard for treating refractory focal aware seizures (FASs). When resective surgery is unadvisable, deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the anterior nucleus of the thalamus (ANT; ANT-DBS) has been the procedure of choice. However, less than half of patients with FASs respond to ANT-DBS.

The impact of subcaudate tractotomy on delusions and hallucinations in psychotic patients.

Background: Delusions and hallucinations, hallmarks of the psychotic disorders, usually do not respond to surgical intervention. For many years, the surgical technique of choice for the treatment of refractory aggressiveness in psychotic patients in our Service was amygdalotomy in isolation or associated with anterior cingulotomy. No improvement of hallucinations and delusions was noticed in any of these patients.

Genetic polymorphisms of the 5HT receptors are not related with depression in temporal lobe epilepsy caused by hippocampal sclerosis.

Background: Temporal lobe epilepsy caused by hippocampal sclerosis (TLE-HS) is the most frequent form of drug-resistant epilepsy in adults. Mood disorders are the most frequent psychiatric comorbidities observed in these patients. Common pathophysiological mechanisms of epilepsy and psychiatric comorbidities include abnormalities in the serotonin pathway.

Earwax as an alternative specimen for forensic analysis.

In this work, we presented, for the first time, earwax as an alternative forensic specimen for detecting 12 neuropsychotic drugs employing liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry in positive and negative ion modes after straightforward extraction with methanol. The method was validated and standard curves were established by external calibration with correlation coefficients >0.99.

Vagus nerve stimulator in patients with epilepsy: indications and recommendations for use.

Epilepsy comprises a set of neurologic and systemic disorders characterized by recurrent spontaneous seizures, and is the most frequent chronic neurologic disorder. In patients with medically refractory epilepsy, therapeutic options are limited to ablative brain surgery, trials of experimental antiepileptic drugs, or palliative surgery. Vagal nerve stimulation is an available palliative procedure of which the mechanism of action is not understood, but with established efficacy for medically refractory epilepsy and low incidence of side-effects.

Striatal somatotopy and motor responses evoked by acute electrical stimulation of the posterior striatum in rats.

Introduction/objectives: Previous experiments suggest that the striatal sensorimotor territory in rats is located in its dorsolateral region, along the rostrocaudal axis, unlike what has been observed in primates. In the present study, electrical stimulation was performed to investigate the degree of participation of the posterior striatum in its motor territory, its somatotopic organization, and the motor responses evoked by stimulation.

Methods: Twenty-five rats were submitted to stereotactic stimulation of the posterior striatum under general anesthesia, receiving consecutively four different current intensities.

Possible mechanisms involved in subthalamotomy-induced dyskinesia in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Background/aims: Operation-induced dyskinesia (OID) occurs in approximately 10% of patients submitted to subthalamotomy. The goal of the authors was to determine the possible causes of this feared complication.

Methods: The 54 patients who underwent unilateral subthalamotomy were divided into two groups: the OID group (OIDG), composed of 6 patients who developed dyskinesia following the operation, and the control group (CG), consisting of 48 patients who did not present this complication.

[Central pontine and extra-pontine myelinosis in alcoholic patient with Shoshin beriberi].

The central pontine myelinosis is classically related with rapid correction of chronic hyponatremia. Recently, important additional factors have been described in the pathogenesis of this condition. We report the case of a 43-year-old alcoholic malnourished man, with acute renal failure with dialytic treatment, and output failure Shoshin beriberi.