Who is a good candidate for DBS (deep brain stimulation)?

Doctor's Answers 1

Essentially the criteria we look out for are Parkinson's patients we feel will greatly benefit from this. We are looking for patients who maybe have mobile fluctuations, meaning they have this “on-off” phenomenon. We want to make sure we do not treat patients with dementia because they do not respond as well to DBS and we want to exclude patients who have severe depression. Again, patients with depression should not have surgery until their depression is stable. So we eliminate those patients who aren't suitable.

However, for those patients who we find are suitable, we find that we can help them over 95% of the time. For those suitable, the success rate is very high in terms of being able to make a difference in their lives. We are not going to make a person completely normal but we are going to try to make them as normal as possible, that's what we are really aiming for.

Similar Questions

What is the cut off age requirement for deep brain stimulation?

Traditionally, we kind of set an age limit of 70 years old, meaning that beyond that we would say that maybe they should not get DBS because it might not be able to help. Over time we became more flexible with age limits, and have done DBS for patients in their mid to late 70s to help them. The amount of help DBS can give often diminishes as the patient ages.

Photo of Dr Nicolas Kon

Answered By

Dr Nicolas Kon

Neurosurgeon

What are common concerns patients should consider before undergoing deep brain stimulation?

To feel anxiety before surgery is normal. I would be more concerned if my patients are not worried about having surgery and I make sure they fully understand what they are going through. And the most frequent thing is the idea of surgery, their concern on the surgery and what is around it and also some questions on recovery. What I do tell them is that this surgery, if you think about it, is quite minimally invasive. Just two thin small wires going into the brain, the opening in the skull is small and the battery itself will go under the skin.

Photo of Dr Nicolas Kon

Answered By

Dr Nicolas Kon

Neurosurgeon

Ask any health question for free

I’m not so sure about a procedure...

Ask Icon Ask a Question

Join Human

Sign up now for a free Human account to get answers from specialists in Singapore.

Sign Up

Get The Pill

Be healthier with our Bite-sized health news straight in your inbox