Surgical complications of functional neurosurgery treating movement disorders: results with anatomical localisation

Thalamic and pallidal lesions can alleviate movement disorders, but to achi eve this safely and efficaciously requires accurate target localization. We report the surgical complications encountered using an anatomical localiza tion technique to create 121 thalamic and pallidal lesions in 79 consecutiv e patients over a 3 year period. There was no perioperative mortality, alth ough there was one late death indirectly related to surgery. The risk of ha emorrhage was 3.3% per lesion made. Anatomical localization offers a relati vely safe way of identifying targets for functional neurosurgery, with comp lication rates which compare favourably with the published literature.