Deep brain stimulation hardware complications in patients with movement disorders: risk factors and clinical correlations

Abstract

Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has proven to be an effective treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD) and other movement disorders, but its usefulness is limited by complications related to the hardware.

Methods: We reviewed the records of all our patients treated with DBS from January 1996 to August 2010 and analyzed those with hardware complications and reasons for surgical revision.

Results: A total of 512 patients underwent 856 electrode implantations during the study period. A total of 297 (58%) patients had PD, 127 (24.8%) had essential tremor (ET), 40 (7.8%) had dystonia, and 48 (9.37%) had another movement disorder. The mean age at the first electrode implantation was 57.6 ± 14 years and patients were followed for a mean of 3.9 ± 2.8 years. A total of 44 patients (8.6%) had a hardware complication or system revision. Lead fracture was the most common complication and occurred in 13 (2.5%) patients, followed by infections (n = 10, 1.9%), electrode misplacement (n = 10, 1.9%), electrode migration (n = 9, 1.75%), and other complications (n = 2 , 0.39%). Patients with ET had a higher risk of hardware complications compared to those with PD, 13 vs. 7% (OR 2.03; p = 0.042).

Conclusions: DBS is a safe intervention with a relatively low rate of hardware complications.