Sixteen years of deep brain stimulation in Tourette's Syndrome: a critical review

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this paper was to perform a critical and systematic review of the published papers on deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Tourette's Syndrome (TS).

Evidence acquisition: A PubMed search on DBS in TS was conducted selecting papers that reported on the clinical outcome of DBS.

Evidence synthesis: The majority of papers were case reports or small series. The thalamus and the globus pallidus internus appear to be the most promising targets. However, in light of the great methodological diversity a balanced comparison of clinical outcome and understanding of the role of DBS in TS remains difficult.

Conclusions: Despite 16 years of experience with DBS in TS a consensus on many issues, foremost on target selection and the age of inclusion continue to be missing. Class I evidence and international collaborations, to increase the number of included patients, are urgently needed, in order to evaluate further the role of DBS in TS.