[Deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease. Preliminary outcomes].

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease justifies the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in certain patients who suffer from this condition. We present mid-term and long-term post-surgical outcomes in a cohort of 60 patients, who underwent DBS in the Hospital de Especialidades at Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, in Mexico City.

METHODS: Patients underwent conventional stereotactic surgery with FrameLink software (Medtronics Inc). This technique consisted in the presurgical evaluation, the placement of stereotactic frame, imaging studies, preoperative planning procedure, microrecording, macrostimulation, as well as the placement of electrodes and generators in two phases. The variables were included in a data platform for Excel management. It was also included a variety of measurement instruments for data comparison. As a standard measure, it was used the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) before the surgery and at 3, 12, and 36 months.

RESULTS: 60 patients underwent surgery: 41 men and 19 women, with an average age of 56.5 years (39-70). There were good results in the majority of patients with preoperative UPDRS and at 3, 12 and 36 months of 79.57, 66.85, 65.29 and 58.75, respectively (p < 0.0001). There were complications in nine patients (15 %) and they were managed in a conservative manner.

CONCLUSIONS: Postsurgical outcomes were from good to excellent in the majority of patients. Complications were minimal and conservatively managed. We propose the use of this procedure in a selected group of Parkinson's patients.