ABSTRACT
The rapid rise in the number of patients undergoing subthalamic nucleus (STN) stimulation for Parkinson’s disease is remarkable, given the traditional view that STN lesions cause disabling hemiballismus and the hypothesis that deep brain stimulation (DBS) produces a ‘‘functional lesion.’’ However, human trials followed the demonstration that STN lesions could alleviate many of the symptoms observed in primate models of Parkinson’s disease (1-3). The clinical benefits of chronic electrical stimulation of the STN were first reported by the Grenoble group in 1994 (4) and a lengthier paper in 1995 (5) describing the first three patients to have electrodes implanted chronically in the STN for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
