An Improvement in Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements and Phonation Following Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy

Summary

Backgrounds:
Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) represents a standard therapeutic technique for the treatment of spasticity. Besides reducing spasticity of the lower limbs, an improvement in motor skills of the upper limbs and an improvement in speech and eye movements have also been repeatedly documented in literature.

Aim:
The objective of this study was to objectify the improvement in phonation and eye tracking.

Methods:
Eight patients underwent videooculographic testing and 11 underwent acoustic speech analysis. The measured parameters were a deviation from basic frequency, shimmer, jitter and phonation index in the acoustic speech analysis and a correlation coefficient of the horizontal stimulus upon videooculography. 


Results:
Seven of the eleven patients demonstrated an improvement in acoustic parameters; four subjects reported an improvement in eye tracking.

Conclusion:
Improvement in phonation and eye tracking following selective dorsal rhizotomy was objectified by testing techniques. The described suprasegmental effects of SDR can be explained by a possibly reduced response of the pathologic polysynaptic due to deafferentation, which developed following selective dorsal rhizotomy.

Key words:
rhizotomy – spasticity – ocular pursuit