Deep Brain Stimulation Settings May Be Successfully Managed at Home After Surgery, Study Shows
New research shows that people receiving deep brain stimulation, or DBS, for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease may be managed successfully at home by a home health nurse in the months following surgical implantation. The findings come at a time when new methods of delivering care to patients have vastly expanded amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The University of Florida-based clinical trial, supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health, demonstrates a proof of concept that could help make DBS therapy more accessible to people who are unable to travel to academic health centers or large cities where the treatment is typically available. Findings from the open-label, randomized clinical trial, a collaboration between University of Florida Health, the University of Utah, the Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, appear in the latest edition of JAMA Neurology.
The results open the door to a new care model for people with Parkinson’s who receive DBS surgery, said co-principal investigator Christopher Butson, Ph.D., a biomedical engineer formerly of the University of Utah who recently joined the UF faculty to direct a new neurotechnology laboratory at the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at UF Health.
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