Severe disturbances in speech, swallowing, and gait following stereotactic infrathalamic lesions in Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome.

Abstract

A 40-year-old man with severe Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome characterized by forceful self-injurious motor tics, coprolalia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder had bilateral anterior cingulotomies and bilateral infrathalamic lesions placed stereotactically during two neurosurgical procedures. During the second procedure, the patient acutely developed a marked dysarthria. Postoperatively, he manifested a severe gait disturbance with postural instability, bradykinesia, axial rigidity, micrographia, and a profound swallowing disorder. MRI showed asymmetric (left > right) low-density areas in an infrathalamic region as well as low-density areas bilaterally in the anterior cingulate gyri. Although the patient's tic and obsessive-compulsive symptoms improved, the self-injurious motor tics along with other motor and phonic tics have recurred. The patient's speech remains largely unintelligible 8 months following the last surgical procedure, and the other neurologic deficits remain unchanged.