To the Editor: From July 1986 to June 1987, 10 patients with Parkinson's disease were treated by our group in China with stereotaxic implantation of autologous adrenal medullary tissue with a silver carrier into the head of the right caudate nucleus. Subsequent clinical evaluation has shown a long-term anti-parkinsonism effect with no use of dopaminergic medication (Table 1). In eight patients, the preoperative symptom was characterized as “akinetic-rigidity–predominant type,” and in two others as “tremor-predominant type.” All had advanced idiopathic Parkinson's disease, complicated by severe motor fluctuations that could not be controlled adequately with any medication. The patients were monitored. © 1989, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.
