Long-Term Improvement of Parkinson Disease Motor Symptoms Derived From Lesions of Prelemniscal Fiber Tract Components.

BACKGROUND Prelemniscal radiations (Raprl) are composed of different fiber tracts, connecting the brain stem and cerebellum with basal ganglia and cerebral cortex. In Parkinson disease (PD), lesions in Raprl induce improvement of tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia in some patients, while others show improvement of only 1 or 2 symptoms, suggesting different fiber tracts mediate different symptoms. OBJECTIVE To search for correlations between improvements of specific symptoms with surgical lesions of specific fiber tract components of Raprl in patients with PD. METHODS A total of 10 patients were treated with unilateral radiofrequency lesions directed to Raprl. The improvement for tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, posture, and gait was evaluated at 24 to 33 mo after operation through the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) score, and the precise location and extension of lesions through structural magnetic resonance imaging and probabilistic tractography at 6 to 8 mo postsurgery. Correlation between percentage of fiber tract involvement and percentage of UPDRS-III score improvement was evaluated through Spearman's correlation coefficient. RESULTS Group average improvement was 86% for tremor, 62% for rigidity, 56% for bradykinesia, and 45% for gait and posture. Improvement in global UPDRS score correlated with extent of lesions in fibers connecting with contralateral cerebellar cortex and improvement of posture and gait with fibers connecting with contralateral deep cerebellar nuclei. Lesion of fibers connecting the globus pallidum with pedunculopontine nucleus induced improvement of gait and posture over other symptoms. CONCLUSION Partial lesion of Raprl fibers resulted in symptom improvement at 2-yr follow-up. Lesions of selective fiber components may result in selective improvement of specific symptoms.