Deep brain stimulation: Linking structure and function in awake and anesthetized patients

摘要

Lettieri et al. in this issue of Clinical Neurophysiology present an interesting review of 5 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease who underwent bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN DBS) under local anaesthesia (LA) with microelectrode recording (MER) guidance (Lettieri et al., 2012). Hardware failure subsequently led to reoperation, again using MER; however, on this occasion surgery was performed under general anaesthesia (GA) using an intravenous infusion of ketamine. The authors report that there were no significant differences in neurophysiological recordings between procedures. This manuscript is unique in that patients provide their own controls.