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Case Reports
. 2023 Sep 4:13:32.
doi: 10.5334/tohm.779. eCollection 2023.

Pistol Shooting Dystonia Treated with Thalamotomy

Masahiko Nishitani  1 , Shiro Horisawa  1 , Taku Nonaka  1 , Kotaro Kohara  1 , Tatsuki Mochizuki  1 , Takakzu Kawamata  1 , Takaomi Taira  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Pistol Shooting Dystonia Treated with Thalamotomy

Masahiko Nishitani et al. Tremor Other Hyperkinet Mov (N Y). .

Abstract

Background: Neurosurgical treatment for pistol shooting dystonia has not been studied.

Case report: The patient was a 41-year-old woman who participated in the Olympic Games four times as a shooting player. Five months after the final Tokyo Olympic trials, she developed dystonia of the right index finger when shooting. Stereotactic thalamotomy was performed, and a complete resolution of dystonia was achieved. She garnered her personal best score and placed fifth in the Tokyo Olympics.

Discussion: Thalamotomy along with deep brain stimulation can be a surgical modality for patients with task-specific dystonia who fail oral medications or botulinum toxin therapy.

Keywords: dystonia; pistol shooting; thalamotomy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Moment of triggering and postoperative MRI
Figure 1
Moment of triggering and postoperative MRI. Distal interphalangeal joint of the triggering finger (arrow) flexed at pre-symptomatic condition (A). 2 months after the onset of dystonia, distal interphalangeal joint of the triggering finger remained extended due to dystonia at the moment of triggering (B). T1-weighted head MRI on the day of the surgery showing coagulated lesion (arrow) on the left thalamus (C).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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