Eleven-Year Outcomes of Deep Brain Stimulation in Early-Stage Parkinson Disease

The deep brain stimulation (DBS) in early-stage Parkinson's disease (PD) pilot clinical trial randomized 30 patients (Hoehn & Yahr II off; medication duration 0.5–4 years; without dyskinesia/motor fluctuations) to optimal drug therapy (ODT) (early ODT) or bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS plus ODT (early DBS+ODT). This study aims to report the 11-year outcomes of patients who completed the DBS in early-stage PD pilot clinical trial. Attempts were made to contact all 29 subjects who completed the two-year trial to participate in an 11-year follow-up study. Mixed-effects models compared overall trend in outcomes for randomization groups (fixed-effects: assigned treatment, year, their interaction; random-effect: subject) to account for repeated measures. Twelve subjects participated in this 11-year follow-up study (n = 8 early ODT, n = 4 early DBS+ODT). Participating subjects were 70.0 ± 4.8 years old with a PD medication duration of 13.7 ± 1.7 years (early DBS duration 11.5 ± 1.3 years, n = 4). Three early ODT subjects received STN-DBS as standard of care (DBS duration 6.5 ± 2.0 years). Early ODT subjects had worse motor complications (Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale [UPDRS]–IV) than early DBS+ODT subjects over the 11-year follow-up period (between-group difference = 3.5 points; pinteraction = 0.03). Early DBS+ODT was well-tolerated after 11 years and showed comparable outcomes to early ODT for other UPDRS domains, Parkinson Disease Questionnaire–39 (PDQ-39), and levodopa equivalent daily dose (LEDD). Eleven years after randomization, early DBS+ODT subjects had fewer motor complications than early ODT subjects. These results should be interpreted with caution because only 40% of pilot trial subjects participated in this 11-year follow-up study. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the conduct of a pivotal clinical trial evaluating DBS in early-stage PD (IDEG050016). The Clinicaltrials.gov registration number for the study is NCT00282152.