Meige syndrome and pallidal deep brain stimulation

The cause of primary Meige syndrome is unknown, and although gender and age predilections are different from idiopathic torsion dystonia, most investigators consider Meige syndrome a variant of that disorder. Interest in the use of stereotactic brain surgery for refractory forms of dystonia is thus increasing. There is little experience with the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in focal dystonias, and reports of its use in Meige syndrome are very rare. We report on a case of Meige syndrome successfully treated with bilateral pallidal DBS. (C) 2005 Movement Disorder Society.