Objective: To investigate whether advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients receive subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) or medical treatment alone have different long-term outcome.

Background: Most previous studies reported comparative efficacy of STN-DBS versus medication alone over short-term follow-up in advanced PD. Only one study reported comparative efficacy over longer follow-up between STN-DBS and medical therapy.

Methods: This is a retrospective comparative study. Between 2003-2009, total 14 STN-DBS surgical candidates evaluated at our center who did not receive DBS at that time had long-term follow-up (37-112 months) later. We selected a group (17) of similar STN-DBS patients with long-term follow-up (36-131 months) for comparison. We obtained two groups comparable at first visit and long-term follow-up.

Results: In the long-term follow-up, Unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale (UPDRS) part II (activity of daily life) and part IV (complication of therapy) of STN-DNS group in the follow-up visit are better than their first visit. On the contrary, UPDRS part II and IV are worse as disease progress in follow-up visit in medical treatment group. No difference between the two groups in part III (motor) of UPDRS if we compared medication off/DBS-medication off and medication on/DBS-medication on. In basic data analysis, levodopa equivalent daily dose (LEDD) dose of STN-DBS group is lower than medication group.

Conclusions: 1) STN-DBS improves quality of life and medical therapy complication (motor fluctuations and dyskinesia) in advanced PD patients 2) There is no difference on disease progress between STN-DBS and medical treatment groups.

« Back to 2016 International Congress

MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-long-term-follow-up-of-subthalamic-nucleus-deep-brain-stimulation-comparing-medication-alone-in-advanced-parkinsons-disease-patients/