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Spinal Cord Stimulation: Effect on Motor Function in Parkinson’s Disease

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Handbook of Spine Technology

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Abstract

Invasive high frequency electrical stimulation of the brain, deep brain stimulation (DBS), has become a standard of care intervention for improving motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Although DBS has been shown to improve many of the cardinal motor symptoms of PD including dyskinesias, bradykinesia, tremor, and rigidity, DBS has not shown consistent benefit for gait dysfunction in PD. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is an older form of electrical neuromodulation and has been used in humans for decades to treat primarily chronic pain disorders. Over the past decade, there has been a growing numbers of animal and human studies suggesting that SCS may improve motor symptoms, especially gait dysfunction problems such as freezing, in patients with PD. SCS has no current regulatory approval for usage in PD motor symptomatology and many of the benefits of SCS in PD patient have been incidentally observed in PD patients who were implanted with SCS for chronic pain. This chapter will review the published evidence for SCS in PD and discuss possible mechanisms for motor improvement in PD in addition to pain alleviation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroscience Institute, Allegheny Health Network, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Saadyah Averick

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, Allegheny Health Network, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Boyle C. Cheng

  3. Allegheny Health Network, Neuroscience Institute, Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Donald M. Whiting

Authors
  1. Nestor D. Tomycz
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  2. Timothy Leichliter
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  3. Saadyah Averick
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  4. Boyle C. Cheng
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  5. Donald M. Whiting
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Saadyah Averick .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Allegheny General Hospital Department of Neurosurgery, Mars, PA, USA

    Boyle Cheng

Section Editor information

  1. Allegheny Health Network, Department of Neurosurgery, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Boyle C. Cheng PhD

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Tomycz, N.D., Leichliter, T., Averick, S., Cheng, B.C., Whiting, D.M. (2020). Spinal Cord Stimulation: Effect on Motor Function in Parkinson’s Disease. In: Cheng, B. (eds) Handbook of Spine Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33037-2_142-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33037-2_142-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-33037-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-33037-2

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