Feinberg
Northwestern Medicine | Northwestern University | Faculty Profiles

News Center

  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
    • Podcast
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Menu
  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
    • Podcast
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Home » Advancing Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson’s
Clinical Breakthroughs

Advancing Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson’s

By Melissa RohmanAug 24, 2020
Share
Facebook Twitter Email
Joshua Rosenow, MD, professor of Neurosurgery, Neurology, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, was a co-author of the study published in The Lancet Neurology.

A novel deep brain stimulation device significantly improved quality of life for patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease while also reducing physical side effects from medication, according to findings from a clinical trial recently published in The Lancet Neurology.

Deep brain stimulation presents numerous benefits for Parkinson’s disease patients, including a reduction in dyskinesia, or uncontrolled involuntary muscle movements, which is a common side-effect of medications that help manage the neurological impact of the disease.

“Deep brain stimulation can lead to a very significant improvement in terms of what a person’s everyday life looks like; they have better symptom control with fewer medications and more reliability,” said Joshua Rosenow, MD, director of Functional Neurosurgery, professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and a co-author of the study.

The most common area of the brain to target with deep brain stimulation for symptoms of Parkinson’s is the subthalamic nucleus, located at the base of the brain. Previous studies have shown that targeting this region can help reduce the amount of medications a patient must take while improving their overall symptom control and quality of life.

For the current study, the investigators assessed deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus, with a novel multiple independent contact current controlled (MICC) device, in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

What makes the MICC device superior to previous devices, according to Rosenow, is that the device’s independent electrical current sources can be used to more precisely to target exact areas in the brain that produce clinical benefits while reducing the amount of electricity reaching areas where stimulation may produce unwanted side effects. Unlike previous devices with batteries that had to be switched out every two to five years, the MICC device’s rechargeable battery lasts over a decade, reducing the amount of times patients with the device must undergo surgery to have the battery changed.

“The older programming was very blunt, and we did great things with it for 30 years, but we’re smarter than that now. This study was getting us along that pathway to smarter deep brain stimulation,” said Rosenow, who is also a professor of Neurology and of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

For the trial, participants with Parkinson’s disease from 23 implanting centers across the U.S. were randomly assigned to receive either active therapeutic stimulation settings or no stimulation settings for the three-month trial period.

At the end of three months, the investigators observed a decrease in serious adverse events, specifically a reduction in dyskinesias, in participants who received active therapeutic stimulation settings from the device, which received FDA approval due to these findings.

Currently, the third generation of the device is being used in clinical settings, yet deep brain stimulation continues to remain severely underutilized by Parkinson’s patients who may greatly benefit from the treatment, according to Rosenow.

“Patients don’t reach out to Parkinson’s neurologists who manage and know how to properly select people for the device. Brain surgery is also big deal, and I think a lot of people dismiss it for being very imposing to them, but we’re always happy to help teach people who are interested about the surgery so they can make a decision with all the proper information,” Rosenow said.

This study was funded by Boston Scientific.

Neurology and Neuroscience Patient Care Research
Share. Facebook Twitter Email

Related Posts

Epigenetic Biomarkers Predict CVD Risk

Jun 28, 2022

Hospitals Bound to Patient Safety Rules that Aren’t all Backed by Evidence

Jun 24, 2022

Identifying Protein Interactions that Promote Cancer Growth

Jun 24, 2022

Comments are closed.

Latest News

Epigenetic Biomarkers Predict CVD Risk

Jun 28, 2022

Student Spearheads Ukraine Aid Efforts

Jun 27, 2022

Hospitals Bound to Patient Safety Rules that Aren’t all Backed by Evidence

Jun 24, 2022

Identifying Protein Interactions that Promote Cancer Growth

Jun 24, 2022

Combination Treatment May Improve Quality of Life in Kidney Cancer

Jun 23, 2022
  • News Center Home
  • Categories
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
  • News Archives
  • About Us
Flickr Photos
20220617_NM_0434
20220617_NM_0858
20220617_NM_0643
20220617_NM_0835
20220617_NM_0544
20220617_NM_0450
20220617_NM_0790
20220617_NM_0811
20220617_NM_0851
20220617_NM_0696
20220617_NM_0779
20220617_NM_0838

Northwestern University logo

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

RSS Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flickr YouTube Instagram
Copyright © 2022 Northwestern University
  • Contact Northwestern University
  • Disclaimer
  • Campus Emergency Information
  • Policy Statements

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.