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Tourette syndrome (TS) bears a higher rate of inflammatory complications at the implanted hardware in deep brain stimulation (DBS)

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Abstract

Background

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a commonly performed surgical technique for the treatment of movement disorders, and recent surgical trials concerning the treatment of a wider range of disorders have recently been published. Despite DBS being non-ablative and minimally invasive, numerous complications and side effects have been recorded. In particular, concerning the growing interest in novel indications for DBS, an enthusiastic approach has put neurosurgeons at risk of underestimating some of the complications that might be associated with specific characters of the treated disease.

Objective

Our objective was to evaluate hardware failures and rates of infective complications in correlation to the different indications to DBS, in order to ascertain whether DBS in Tourette syndrome (TS) is characterized by specific risks and pitfalls.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed our experience of 531 procedures on 272 patients treated for various movement disorders, among which 39 patients were treated for conservative treatmentrefractory TS.

Results

A statistically significant association of infective complications was found with the TS subgroup.

Conclusions

It is our belief that specific behavioral characters of the TS patients may be put into association with this specific complication and need to be considered carefully when indicating DBS as treatment of choice for these patients.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Ms Tiziana De Santo for support concerning methods and data evaluation, and Ms Olga Lee Rachello for language revision.

Conflicts of interest

None.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Functional Neurosurgery and Tourette Center, IRCCS Galeazzi Institute, via R. Galeazzi 4, 20161, Milan, Italy

    Domenico Servello, Marco Sassi & Mauro Porta

  2. Biometry and Clinical Epidemiology Unit, GSD Foundation, 20161, Milan, Italy

    Maddalena Gaeta & Cristian Ricci

Authors
  1. Domenico Servello
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  2. Marco Sassi
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  3. Maddalena Gaeta
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  4. Cristian Ricci
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  5. Mauro Porta
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marco Sassi.

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Servello, D., Sassi, M., Gaeta, M. et al. Tourette syndrome (TS) bears a higher rate of inflammatory complications at the implanted hardware in deep brain stimulation (DBS). Acta Neurochir 153, 629–632 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-010-0851-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-010-0851-y

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