Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease: A Delphi Consensus Study

If history teaches, as cardiac pacing moved from fixed-rate to on-demand delivery in in 80s of the last century, there are high probabilities that closed-loop and adaptive approaches will become, in the next decade, the natural evolution of conventional Deep Brain Stimulation (cDBS). However, while devices for aDBS are already available for clinical use, few data on their clinical application and technological limitations are available so far. In such scenario, gathering the opinion and expertise of leading investigators worldwide would boost and guide practice and research, thus grounding the clinical development of aDBS.

We identified clinical and academically experienced DBS clinicians (n=21) to discuss the challenges related to aDBS. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire along with a Delphi method was employed. 42 questions were submitted to the panel, half of them being related to technical aspects while the other half to clinical aspects of aDBS. Experts agreed that aDBS will become clinical practice in 10 years. In the present scenario, although the panel agreed that aDBS applications require skilled clinicians and that algorithms need to be further optimized to manage complex PD symptoms, consensus was reached on aDBS safety and its ability to provide a faster and more stable treatment response than cDBS, also for tremor-dominant Parkinson's disease patients and for those with motor fluctuations and dyskinesias.

Despite the need of further research, the panel concluded that aDBS is safe, promises to be maximally effective in PD patients with motor fluctuation and dyskinesias and therefore will enter into the clinical practice in the next years, with further research focused on algorithms and markers for complex symptoms.