Bilateral deep brain stimulation vs best medical therapy for patients with advanced Parkinson disease: a randomized controlled trial
Published: January 2009
There are few randomised comparing DBS with other treatments. Most clinical studies exclude older patients, and most DBS patients tend to be older. In this randomised, controlled trial 6-month outcomes for 255 patients with PD who received deep brain stimulation or best medical therapy were compared. The study also stratified by study site and patient age (<70 years vs > or =70 years).
The study showed that in patients with advanced PD, deep brain stimulation was more effective than best medical therapy in improving on time without troubling dyskinesias, motor function, and quality of life at 6 months, but was associated with an increased risk of serious adverse events. As yet, there are no studies that investigate the balance between the side effects of DBS and the improvements it enables, but this is certainly an interesting study for moving this area forward.
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