Curative efficacy and safety of PINS deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease

Objective To evaluate the curative efficacy and safety of PINS deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease. Methods A retrospective study was conducted of the 49 patients with Parkinson's disease who had been subjected to the PINS DBS surgery from January 2013 through June 2016 at our department. They were 23 males and 26 females, aged from 40 to 77 years (average, 63.2 years). There were 36 cases of bilateral disease and 13 ones of unilateral disease. They all received implantation of subthalamic nucleus (STN) electrode for PINS DBS. The Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) Ⅱ/Ⅲ and the 39-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39) were used for assessment of each patient preoperation, 3 months and one year postoperation. The operation-associated complications were recorded. Results Thirty-six patients underwent bilateral electrode implantation and 13 unilateral electrode implantation. The head MRI follow-ups showed that all the electrodes were accurately placed in the STN. Follow-ups also showed that the symptoms were improved in all cases. The UPDRS Ⅱ/Ⅲ and PDQ-39 scores at 3 months after operation were respectively 11.71±5.28, 18.30±8.11 and 32.94±15.07, significantly lower than the values before DBS (14.37±6.24, 26.82±14.75 and 43.76±17.42, respectively) (all P 0.05). Complications were not present associated with pacemaker hardware, system or electrical stimulation. Conclusions PINS DBS may repair the neurological function in patients with Parkinson's disease, obviously ameliorating their symptoms of movement disorder, living ability and life quality. The operation is safe, leading to no obvious complications. Regular modulation of the stimulation parameters assure stable curative efficacy. Key words: Deep brain stimulation; Parkinson’s disease; Subthalamic nucleus