Objective: This study aimed to assess relationships between weight-gain and charge efficiency following Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery in both male and female participants.

Background: Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is an increasingly common therapeutic intervention for the management of movement disorders. Increases in weight and body mass are often reported following DBS implantation. Several case studies and anecdotal reports, have mentioned difficulties in recharging batteries in patients who gained weight following DBS [1,2], possibly due to increased subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) disrupting charging. However there is a paucity of quantitative research investigating the relationship between body mass and charge times.

Method: A cross sectional study recruited 30 people with DBS (female n=14, male n=16). Each underwent a charging protocol to establish the rate of charge: baseline battery level was recorded, then battery was charged for 10 minutes and charge level recorded again. This was repeated 3 times. Biometric data including weight (kg), BMI (kg/m²), body fat (%) were recorded, to establish any relationship between biometric parameters and charge rate.

Results: Of those who participated in the study, 75% gained weight with an average gain of (6.6kg). Female participants gained significantly more than males (p=0.02) and also had greater degree of body fat (p<0.001), however there was no significant difference in charge-rate between groups (p>0.05). Pearson’s correlation coefficient did not reveal a relationship between weight, BMI or body fat for female participants.  However, a greater degree of body fat was strongly linked with slower charge rates in men (r=-0.6, p=0.02).

Conclusion: Despite the greater degree of body fat recorded in female participants, only male participants demonstrated slower charge rate with greater body fat. This could be due to the composition of SAT. Men tend to a have higher proportion of deep SAT [3], as well as higher SAT density [4], while women exhibit more superficial SAT. These compositional differences may create greater resistance for the charge to pass through, subsequently increasing charge time. Such results may inform postoperative education regarding the importance of maintaining weight following DBS implantation and reducing the need for additional corrective surgeries in future.

References: 1. Li H., Su D., , Lai Y,, Xu X. , Zhang C., Sun B., Li D., Pan Y. (2021). Recharging Difficulty With Pulse Generator After Deep Brain Stimulation: A Case Series of Five Patients, Frontiers in Neuroscience, 15 DOI=10.3389/fnins.2021.705483
2. Kaminska, M., Perides S., Lumsden, D.E., Nakou V., Selway R, Ashkan, K., Lin., JP. (2017), Complications of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for dystonia in children – The challenges and 10 year experience in a large paediatric cohort, European Journal of Paediatric Neurology, 21(1),168-175,
3 Yeoh, A. J., Pedley, A., Rosenquist, K. J., Hoffmann, U., & Fox, C. S. (2015). The Association Between Subcutaneous Fat Density and the Propensity to Store Fat Viscerally. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, 100(8), E1056–E1064. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2014-4032
4. Brand T., Van den Munckhof I.C, Van der Graaf M., Schraa K., Dekker H.M., Joosten L.A.B., Netea M.G., Riksen N., de Graaf J., Rutten J.H.W., (2021) Superficial vs Deep Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue: Sex-Specific Associations With Hepatic Steatosis and Metabolic Traits, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 106(10), e3881–e3889, https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab426

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/a-quantitative-analysis-of-the-link-between-weight-gain-and-charge-efficiency-in-dbs/