Deep Brain Stimulation Generator Failure due to External Defibrillation in a Patient with Essential Tremor

There exist only two case reports to date of open cardiac defibrillation with deep brain stimulator system (DBS) implantation. We report a 64-year-old male with DBS system in place for essential tremor who underwent cardiac defibrillation after cardiac arrest. Afterwards, his device impedances were all high and his tremor symptoms returned. Both problems resolved with implantation of a new generator and required no changes to the intracranial leads or extension cables. This is significantly different from the two previous reports. One included a significantly different DBS system relying on transcutaneous RF transmission and reported a lesioning effect after cardioversion. The other utilized a modern DBS system but reported damage to the generator and intracranial leads. We report that only the generator sustained damage, and that there were no intracranial changes that occurred.