[Surgical treatment of Parkinson disease: indications and limitations].

Thalamotomy, a surgical lesion of the ventro-intermediate nucleus of the thalamus, is a well known surgical treatment of tremor in Parkinson's disease. Over the last years, new surgical therapies had been developed. These therapies, instead of making a lesion in the brain, consist in placing electrodes in specific areas of the brain and to inhibit neuronal function by electrical stimulation. Electrical stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus or of the pallidum are effective to treat motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The procedure can be done bilaterally, contrary to thalamotomy. A short overview of the indications and contra-indications of this kind of therapy is given.