Increased risk of lead fracture and migration in dystonia compared with other movement disorders following deep brain stimulation.
Yianni J., Nandi D., Shad A., Bain P., Gregory R., Aziz T.
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy is a continually expanding field in the functional neurosurgical treatment of movement disorders. However, the occurrence of adverse events related to implanted hardware cannot be overlooked. We report on a specific feature noted in our experience of DBS-related complications. From 1998 until present we have found an overall rate of 5.3% of DBS electrode lead dysfunction (out of 133 patients) in our series (slipped leads 2.3%, lead fracture 3.8%). Interestingly, all of these failures occurred in dystonia patients (18.4% of all dystonia patients and 9.2% of all electrodes). We postulate on mechanisms that may explain why these complications predominate in this group of patients.