Unexpected outcome of pallidal deep brain stimulation in a patient with Tourette syndrome - Commentary

摘要

Spontaneous remission is a possible outcome for patients with Tourette syndrome. Whether symptom relief, in the case here described, was due entirely to the natural course of the disease or to neural plasticity induced by a long-term GPi deep brain stimulation (DBS) cannot be definitively addressed. There is a point that is, however, worth considering: DBS is a reversible and fairly safe treatment that can be offered to selected patients to alleviate a strongly disabling disease. It is possible that some young patients may recover with time, but in the meanwhile, DBS could represent an important therapeutic strategy to improve their quality of life.