Effect of Deep Brain Stimulation on Quality of Life in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effect of deep brain stimulation (DBS) on quality of life (QOL) in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Materials and Methods: The study included 19 patients with idiopathic PD who underwent DBS surgery at Mustafa Kemal University Faculty of Medicine, Neurosurgery Department. Patient characteristics, duration of disease, and the dominant hand of each patient were noted from the patients’ clinical records. The QOL of the patients was assessed using the RAND 36-Item Health Survey 1.0 (RAND-36) and the symptoms of PD were evaluated using the Unified PD Rating Scale (UPDRS), which was administered preoperatively when the medication was on (within one week prior to surgery) and postoperatively when the medication and stimulation were on (2 months after the surgery; range, 55-65 days).

Results: The study included 19 patients with PD, comprising 12 (63.2%) men and 7 (36.8%) women with a mean age of 52.07±9.89 (range, 38-72) years. The mean duration of disease was 6.60±5.92 years. A sex-based analysis of the RAND-36 scores indicated that there was a significant difference between the pre- and postoperative scores of the female patients for bodily pain (p=0.028) and between the pre- and postoperative scores of the male patients for emotional well-being (p=0.032). However, no significant difference was found between the pre- and postoperative scores of other subcategories in both sexes (p>0.05). On the other hand, postoperative UPDRS scores decreased compared with preoperative scores in all patients.

Conclusion: This study is the first region-wide prospective study to investigate the effects of subthalamic nucleus (STN)-DBS in patients with PD for our region. The results indicated that STN-DBS surgery had a positive effect on the QOL in patients with PD.