Survey of common deep brain stimulation programming practices by experts in Parkinson’s Disease

Identify consensus and variability in deep brain stimulation (DBS) programming practices for Parkinson’s disease.

DBS programming relies on the personal experience and skills of programmers. Despite consensus statements, there aren’t official guidelines for DBS programming, making it likely for protocols to vary among providers.

We administered an online survey to the Functional Neurosurgery Working Group of the Parkinson’s Study Group to capture those actively programming DBS patients. We performed descriptive statistics and comparisons of responses based on career stage: early (0–10 years) versus later (>10 years).

Boston Scientific (n = 15/31, 48%) and Medtronic (n = 14/35, 40%) are the two DBS systems ranked as most used, with less reported frequency of Abbott devices (n = 4/32, 12.5). Traditional monopolar review ranked as the most common initial programming strategy by 23/29 (79%) respondents, regardless of the device type implanted. Monopolar omnidirectional testing was the most often used approach for contact configuration at initial programming (24/33, 73%).For treating dyskinesia, tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, speech-related side effects, non-motor adverse effects, or swallowing-related side effects, the most likely optimization strategy selected was to modify amplitude of the active contact. When treating freezing of gait, there was a divergence between first modifying amplitude (n = 11/29, 38%) or frequency (n = 12/33, 36%).

Initial programming practices generally align with published recommendations, which can reassure less experienced clinicians in practices with near consensus and allow them to devote more time to areas with wider variety of practice. Our data also highlights aspects of DBS programming with less consensus, demonstrating the need for future evidence.