ss=""h4"">Backgrounds
Wor
sening of verbal fluency i
s reported after
subthalamic nucleu
s deep brain
stimulation in Parkin
son'
s di
sea
se. It i
s po
stulated that the
se change
s could reflect microle
sion con
secutive to the
surgical procedure it
self.
ss=""h4"">Methods
We evaluated verbal fluency, in 26 patients (mean age, 57.9 ¡À 8.5 years; mean disease duration, 11.4 ¡À 3.5 years) both before surgery (baseline) and, after surgery respectively the third day (T3), the tenth day (T10) just after STN implantation before turning on the stimulation and at six months (T180).
ss=""h4"">Results
Number of total words and switches was significantly reduced at T3 and T10, while average cluster size was unchanged. Repeated post-operative neuropsychological testing demonstrated reliable improvement from T3 to T180 on verbal fluency.
ss=""h4"">Conclusion
This study provides evidence of transient verbal fluency decline consecutive to a microlesion effect. Further studies needed to determine a putative relationship between early and long-term verbal fluency impairment.
