Long-term follow-up study on the safety of deep brain stimulation for treating Parkinson's disease

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Objective To evaluate the safety of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for treating Parkinson's disease (PD) under long-term follow-up and modify the surgical procedure. Methods A total of 362 PD patients underwent DBS, and almost 613 electrodes were implanted into these patients. Both surgical and hardware-related complications of DBS were retrospectively analyzed. Results Perioperative complications included postoperative confusion or delirium in 21 cases (5.80%), intracranial hemorrhage in 4 cases (1.10%; 2 asymptomatic cortical microhemorrhage and 2 basal ganglia trajectory microhemorrhage), generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) in 2 cases (0.55% ), urinary tract infection in 4 cases (1.10% ), pulmonary infection in 7 cases (1.93%), implantable pulse generator (IPG) hematoma in 11 cases (3.04%), IPG seroma in 3 cases (0.83%). All these patients were cured. They were followed-up for 12-146 months (median 34 months). Hardware-related complications included infection of incisional wound and/or skin erosion (9 cases, 2.49% ), extension wire fracture caused by IPG displacement (one case, 0.28% ), IPG shifting to abdomen due to fixation wire fracture (one case, 0.28%), slightly migrated electrode due to fall (one case, 0.28%), and discomfort about occipital incision (one case, 0.28%). Conclusions The overall risk of both surgical and hardware-related adverse events of DBS for treating PD is acceptably low. DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2015.10.005