Deep Brain Stimulation for the Treatment of Hemichorea: Case Series and Literature Review.

BACKGROUND

Hemichorea (HC) and its severe form hemiballismus (HB) are rare movement disorders which can be medically refractory to treatments and may need surgical intervention.

CASE REPORT: We report 3 patients with HC-HB who had meaningful clinical improvement with unilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the globus pallidus interna (GPi). We identified 8 prior cases of HC-HB treated with GPi-DBS, and a majority of these patients experienced significant improvement in their symptoms.

DISCUSSION: GPi-DBS can be considered in medically refractory HC-HB in carefully selected patients. However, data is limited to small case series and further studies are needed.