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Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.
Okun et al1 report complications in
8 patients who had gammaknife radiosurgery for Parkinson disease. All of
these patientswere treated in a single center. Although the authors carefully
reporttheir clinical outcomes, several points made in their articleshould
be addressed and clarified. Their abstract begins withthe following statement:
"Many medical centers throughout theworld offer radiosurgery with the gamma
knife (GK) for pallidotomyand thalamotomy as a safe and effective alternative
to radiofrequencyablative surgery and deep brain stimulation for Parkinson
disease."I do not believe that this is correct. Many medical centerswith
a gamma knife do not offer this treatment; most use itto treat brain tumors
or vascular malformations. Movement disordersare usually treated only by
people experienced in performingsurgery for this type of condition. This
is an infrequent procedurerelative to others. Most medical centers with a
gamma knifedo not . . . [Full Text of this Article]