The effect of remote programming on deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease: a retrospective study

Abstract

Abstract For Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS), remote programming (RP) was developed to eliminate the burden of repeat office visits for standard programming (SP) sessions to maximize the treatment effect. No studies comparing the treatment effects of RP with SP directly were performed. Thirty-two propensity score matched patients were retrospectively recruited and allocated to the RP or SP group according to their programming methods, and clinical outcomes were compared at ~12-month follow-ups between the two groups. No differences were found in changes of the Unified PD Rating Scale III score, PD Questionnaire-8 score, or levodopa equivalent daily dose between the groups (p>0.05); and the average cost of the RP group decreased compared with their SP sessions (p<0.001), and was less than the average cost of the SP group (p=0.040), even though the patients in the RP group reside further from our center than patients in the SP group (p=0.004). This study demonstrated RP alleviates the cost burden of the short-term follow-ups for PD patients without compromising the DBS treatment effect.