[Surgical treatment of spasmodic torticollis. Physiopathological considerations and follow-up of 20 cases (author's transl)].

The standard surgical procedures on either peripheral or central nervous system in the treatment of primary spasmodic torticollis are: myotomy, neurotomy, cervical rhizotomy, cortical topectomy, prefrontal lobotomy and a variety of stereotaxic nucleotomies and tractotomies (globus pallidus, thalamus, subthalamus, midbrain). These procedures are briefly reviewed. Some newly proposed operations are than discussed (Svien's labyrinthine suppression and Mazar's interruption of cortico-capsular head-turning pathways). The former surgical intervention is based on physiological and experimental evidence than an altered influence of the reticular substance of the midbrain on the "central" vestibular circuits may be relevant in the genesis of primary spasmodic torticollis. The results are reported of 20 personal cases treated with various surgical procedures with a maximum follow-up of 14.4 years (mean = 6.7 years). It is concluded that at present the most effective and reliable treatment is bilateral anterior rhizotomy of C1-C3 combined with unilateral or bilateral neurotomy (or spinal rhizotomy) of the 11th cranial nerve. The results were rated clinically as useful in 66.6% of the 15 patients treated with this procedure.