Back to the Future Part III trailer War of the Worlds ipod A study of six patients ages 8 to 26 took place trying to find a cure for cerebral palsy.
The therapy had the best improvements in children under age 12 according to Warren Marks, M.D. of Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas.
Deep brain stimulation has been used widely for adults, but less often for children with secondary dystonias like those found in cerebral palsy. The researchers followed patients who have undergone deep brain stimulation at Cook Children’s Hospital for 6 to 12 months to help with their study.
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All of the patients followed made an improvement of at least one of three rating scale measures with the best results coming from children under 12 years of age according to Dr. Marks. He stated, “The younger patients do better, probably because the older patients have more fixed orthopedic impairment.” He noted that the treatment targets only dystonia, not spasticity, which is another common problem in cerebral palsy.
L. Verhagen Metman, M.D. of Rush University in Chicago, said that the treatment was successful in children with genetic dystonia, not secondary dystonias like the ones resulting from cerebral palsy.
Both doctors agree that the stimulation has few side effects. Dr. Marks stated that his findings show that younger dystonic cerebral palsy patients will likely improve in tonal abnormalities with the stimulation. Older patients may also still benefit from the stimulation as well.
