Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is the most commonly performed functional neurosurgical procedure and is indicated for the treatment of Essential Tremor (ET), Parkinson's disease (PD), and Dystonia when medications fail to adequately control symptoms or cause intolerable side effects. The Mount Sinai team has implanted more than 400 DBS devices over the last six years and performs more than 500 office visits a year for device programming.

Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) has been widely used since the late 1990s for the treatment of medically refractory epilepsy. The FDA also approved VNS for the treatment of severe depression that is resistant to both antidepressant medications and electroconvulsive therapy. The VNS device stimulates the brain via the left vagus nerve, which lies in the neck, so that implantation of the device does not require exposure of the brain.

Motor Cortical Stimulation (MCS) is an experimental therapy that is not yet approved by the FDA. Implantation of this device is considered safer than implanting a DBS device because the stimulating electrodes are placed on the surface of the brain, not within it. Ongoing research is examining the effectiveness of MCS for enhancing motor recovery after stroke and for the treatment of chronic pain and Parkinson’s disease.

Mount Sinai offers MCS following stroke as part of a clinical trial sponsored by Northstar Neuroscience, Inc.

When medical treatment fails, surgery for Parkinson's and other movement disorders is available. Neurosurgical treatment of movement disorders includes two broad classes of procedures: ablative and augmentative.

Ablative procedures aim to destroy a very selected target within the brain to lessen the symptoms of the disease. These procedures include pallidotomy and thalamotomy. Augmentative procedures, on the other hand, try to help with the symptoms by adding something to the brain.