Unusual complications of deep brain stimulation

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has emerged as a successful therapy for the treatment of several neurological disorders with potential implications in management of psychiatric disease. A variety of well-characterized hardware and surgical complications have been reported after the procedure, including postoperative hardware infection, system failure, and intracranial hemorrhage. Fortunately, serious surgical complications are rare, but they can lead to immediate or long-term disability. As the number of patients undergoing DBS continues to increase, newer and less common complications continue to emerge. It is imperative that clinicians become familiar with these complications in order to promptly recognize them and institute adequate early treatment. In this report, we examine the occurrence of unusual complications after DBS with emphasis on surgical, hardware, and stimulation-related complications.