Hilvert, Austin M.; Sundrani, Sameer.; Baker, Clayton R.; Chao, Astoria.; Vanleuven, Jordan.; Ye, Emma.; Hughes, Natasha.; Long, Isabel.; Battula, Sharonya.; Li, Rui.; Shults, Robert.; Dawant, Benoit M.; Ball, Tyler.; Hassell, Travis.; Englot, Dario J.; Bick, Sarah K. (2026).听.听Neurosurgery, Publish Ahead of Print.听
Deep brain stimulation, or DBS, is a treatment for movement disorders such as Parkinson鈥檚 disease, essential tremor, and dystonia. In this study, the researchers asked whether it is better to place the two DBS electrodes in separate surgeries, called staged implantation, or in a single surgery, called simultaneous implantation. They compared 252 patients who had staged procedures with 252 similar patients who had simultaneous procedures, using medical records from a large hospital database. The staged group tended to be older and had slightly lower body weight, and the two groups also differed somewhat in diagnosis and in the brain region targeted for stimulation. However, when the researchers compared outcomes, they found no meaningful differences between the two approaches in surgical complications, postoperative problems, delirium, hospital readmissions within 30 days, medication reduction after one year, or the need for another operation within five years. The main difference was practical: staged surgery required more anesthesia, more operating room time, and more hospital days, meaning it used more resources and took longer to complete. Overall, the study suggests that both approaches lead to similar clinical results, but doing both sides in one session may be less burdensome for patients and the healthcare system.
FIGURE 1.
Lead implantation surgery dates for staged vs simultaneous deep brain stimulation. Distribution of lead implantation surgery dates for staged and simultaneous cohorts. Each dot represents an individual patient; red horizontal lines denote median values; and red crosses indicate mean values.