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International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
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Neurosurgery Special Interest Group

Our Mission

To establish within the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society a group of movement disorder practitioners, from either medical or surgical backgrounds, dedicated to collaboration between specialties to continuously improve patient care and clinical outcomes, as related to surgical therapies.

The Neurosurgery Special Interest Group will develop educational programs, and clinical tools for multidisciplinary use aimed at offering innovative surgical solutions to complex neurologic disorders.

 

Maria Fiorella Contarino
Chair Co-Chair
Maria Fiorella Contarino Paul Larson
Netherlands United States

 

MDS Staff Liaison: Drew Whalen

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  Steering Committee

Pankaj Agarwal
Mohit Agrawal
Juan Manuel Altamirno
Gabriel Arango
Anna Castrioto
Arunmozhimaran Elavarasi
Clement Hamani
Andrea Kuehn
Antonella Macerollo
Alia Mansour
Yavuz Samanci
Harini Sarva


Get Involved: Join the MDS Neurosurgery SIG


We welcome you to consider serving MDS by joining the MDS-Neurosurgery SIG.
Special Interest Groups are open to all MDS members. Simply log into your MDS account, select “My Profile” and choose the “Neurosurgery” option under the “Special Interest Groups” tab. Once joined, members are able to receive messages, letters of interest, in-person meeting invitations and other pertinent communications from the group.

Looking for ways to get involved?
There are several projects and volunteer opportunities available for those who would like to actively participate within the group. If interested, please contact Drew Whalen at the MDS Secretariat office.
 

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  Group Activities and Projects in Development
  • Developing educational programs on neurosurgical content for future MDS sponsored courses
     
  • Proposing neurosurgical topics/session for MDS International Congresses
     
  • The Multi-site DBS Center Survey (Ongoing Project)

Preliminary Findings (PPT) │DBS Survey Poster

Abstract Publication: Butala AA, Mills KA, Schmidt P, Okun MS, Mari Z. A multi-site survey of Parkinson’s disease deep brain stimulation center best practice: moving toward a standard of care for DBS [abstract]. Movement Disorders. 2016 June; 31(suppl 2): S13.

  • DBS Complications Scale (New Project)

Objective(s): To review and categorize literature records of all DBS complications and develop an MDS-approved DBS Complications Scale to share with the Movement Disorders community

  Annual Group Meetings at MDS International Congresses

View minutes from the Group’s past meetings:

  • 22nd International Congress in Hong Kong in October 2018

Meeting Agenda

  • 21st International Congress in Vancouver, BC, Canada in June 2017

Meeting Minutes

  • 20th International Congress in Berlin, Germany in June 2016

Meeting MinutesTerms of Reference

  • 19th International Congress in San Diego, CA, USA in June 2015

Meeting Agenda

  • 18th International Congress in Stockholm, Sweden in June 2014

Meeting Agenda

  • 17th International Congress in Sydney, Australia in June 2013

Meeting Agenda (PPT)Proposal for CDISC Pilot Study

  Neurosurgical Contributions to Movement Disorders Surgery


Neurologists and neurosurgeons, working together, have championed innovations in neurosurgical care to address patients with movement disorders failing medical management.

This section of the International and Movement Disorder Society website is dedicated to elaborating on neurosurgical advancements in treating patients with movement disorders and was developed under the leadership of the former Director of the Neurosurgery Task Force of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society, Prof. Joachim K. Krauss (Direktor, Neurochirurgie, Zentrum Neurologische Medizin, Medizinischen Hochschule Hannover, Germany). Special recognition for developing this content and coordinating the project belongs to Dr. Karl Sillay, Dr. Kelly Foote and Dr. Marwan I. Hariz.

If you are interested in submitting content for this section, please contact nsaid@movementdisorders.org.   

 



Definition of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery

Neurosurgeons treating disorders of brain function by inactivating or stimulating the nervous system often referred to as functional neurosurgeons. Early neurosurgeons performing procedures with a Stereotactic Frame (described later) were often referred to as Stereotactic or Stereotaxic neurosurgeons. The term Functional and Stereotactic Neurosurgery has been associated with those neurosurgeons performing such procedures as deep brain stimulation (DBS).

More formally defined, "Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery is a branch of neurosurgery that utilizes dedicated structural and functional neuroimaging to identify and target discrete areas of the nervous system and to perform specific interventions (for example neuroablation, neurostimulation, neuromodulation, neurotransplantation, and others) using dedicated instruments and machinery in order to relieve a variety of symptoms of neurological and other disorders and to improve function of both the structurally normal and abnormal nervous system." (Blond, Broggi, Gildenberg, Hariz, Krauss, Lazorthes and Lozano).

Brief History of Neurosurgery for Parkinson’s disease

Surgical intervention for Parkinson's disease (PD) began with ablative surgery. In 1942, Dr. R. Meyers first reported the effects of ablative surgery of the basal ganglia in a Parkinson's patient when he performed partial caudate resections for control of parkinsonian unilateral tremor (Meyers, 1942; Gildenberg, 1998). In the 1950s, Dr. Cooper reported an accidental finding during a planned mesencephalic pedunculotomy. Dr. Cooper ligated the anterior choroidal in the process of aborting the surgery, and observed reduction in tremor and rigidity without the loss of motor strength. Lesions produced by this procedure variably included parts of the thalamus, globus pallidus, or internal capsule.

Human stereotaxy was introduced in 1947 by Spiegel and Wycis (Spiegel et al., 1947), providing a reproducible method of navigating to an intended surgical target. Dr. Hassler described lesioning of the ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus for parkinsonian tremor using stereotaxy in 1954 (Hassler and Riechert, 1954). Surgery for movement disorders was then widely performed until Dr. Cotzias introduced in 1968 a clinically practical form of levodopa therapy (Cotzias, 1968), which temporarily suspended the apparent need for movement disorders surgery.

Lesional stereotactic surgery for PD re-emerged in the 1990s for patients experiencing complications of levodopa therapy. Stereotactic targets included the: ventrolateral thalamus, globus pallidus internus (GPi), and subthalamic nucleus (STN) (Starr et al. 1998). Early in the development of stereotactic lesional surgery, neurostimulation was observed to reduce parkinsonian tremor (Hassler et al., 1960). These observations led to the development of implantable electrical stimulation devices as an alternative to stereotactic lesional surgery for Parkinson's disease.

The first permanent implant subthalamic nucleus stimulator to treat all cardinal signs of Parkinson's disease was performed by Dr. Alim Benabid in Grenoble, France in 1993 (Limousin et al., 1995). Today, deep brain stimulation (DBS) has become the "gold standard" for the surgical treatment of PD. Unlike ablation, DBS is relatively safe, non-destructive, reversible, and adjustable.

 

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