Thoracic Spinal Cord Stimulation as a Symptomatic Treatment for Advanced Parkinson's Disease

Following the so call "honey moon" period, motor symptoms of Parkinson's Disease (PD) become difficult to control with dopaminergic treatments alone. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus and internal globus pallidus helps to treat fluctuating parkinsonian patients restoring a decent quality of life. However, DBS need a long, complex and invasive surgery to succeed. Thus, there is a critical need to develop alternative treatments, more accessible and less invasive. Thoracic posterior spinal cord stimulation has been used for decades to treat chronic neuropathic pains. Safety and efficacy have already been demonstrated in neuropathic pain. Experimentally, SCS has also demonstrated to improve locomotor activity in two different rodents' models of parkinson's disease. The purpose of this study is to determine whether thoracic SCS is safe and could induce a benefit motor parkinsonian symptoms without any impact on cognitive function and axial disability.