Minimizing hemorrhagic and perioperative complications in deep brain stimulation surgery in a series of 191 patients operated on over 4 years.

Introduction: Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) in functional neurosurgery is a relatively rare but serious complication. One of the possible risk factors related to ICH is the number of trajectories made for microelectrode recording (MER). Authors who solely rely on macrostimulation using macroelectrodes argue that the incidence of ICH is much lower while maintaining good clinical efficacy of deep brain stimulation (DBS). The present study aimed to assess the incidence of ICH in DBS procedures by reducing to the minimum the number of brain passes and the diameter of guiding cannulas. For this reason, we used one MER guiding cannula exclusively for track making with subsequent macrostimulation done through the implanted DBS electrode.

Material and methods: All DBS procedures performed between January 2018 and January 2022 in the Department of Neurosurgery of the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw were analyzed for possible ICH and other perioperative complications. The DBS lead was implanted by an MR image-guided and intraprocedural CT-verified approach. No MER was done.

Results: During four years 191 patients underwent 267 DBS lead implantations in 252 stereotactic procedures. ICH occurred in 2 patients. Both were symptomatic. Adverse symptoms resolved within a week. Two DBS leads required replacement. There was 1 case of hematoma at the implantable pulse generator (IPG) site and 1 case of pneumothorax due to tunneling of the extension.

Conclusions: Our surgical technique has a low incidence of ICH. Symptomatic ICH affected 2 patients. The other perioperative complications mentioned above required repeated surgery or conservative treatment. No patient suffered from permanent deficits.