Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30648026›Full record

ReviewCureus2018

Efficacy and Safety of Deep Brain Stimulation in the Treatment of Parkinson's Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Sosipatros Bratsos, Dimitrios Karponis, Sohag N Saleh

Open access · diamondAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Cureus, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
41citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
3.2field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

41 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 60 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation of Internal Globus Pallidus Region and Motor Cortex in Parkinson's Disease.Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society · 2026
    Trial
  5. Trial
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Review
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Preoperative network activity predicts the response to subthalamic DBS for Parkinson's disease.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2025
    Article
  15. A Low-Cost, Open-Source Wireless Platform for Real-Time Tremor Monitoring in Parkinson's Disease.International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering : [proceedings]. International IEEE EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering · 2025
    Article
  16. Review
  17. Review
  18. Review
  19. Article
  20. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Sosipatros BratsosInternal Medicine, Imperial College London, London, GBR.
Dimitrios KarponisOrthopaedics, Imperial College London, London, GBR.
Sohag N SalehPharmacology, Imperial College London, London, GBR.
Imperial College London · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical procedure indicated for patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). Whether similar benefits may be realized by patients with early PD, however, is currently unclear, especially given the potential risks of the procedure. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the relative efficacy and safety of DBS in comparison to best medical therapy (BMT) in the treatment of PD. It also aimed to compare the efficacy of DBS between patients with early and advanced PD. A systematic search was performed in Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL). Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing DBS to BMT in PD patients were included. Outcome measures were impairment/disability using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), quality of life (QoL) using the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39), levodopa equivalent dose (LED) reduction, and rates of serious adverse events (SAE). Eight eligible RCTs (n = 1,189) were included in the meta-analysis, two of which recruited early PD patients. Regarding efficacy outcomes, there were significant improvements in UPDRS, PDQ-39, and LED scores in favour of DBS (P < 0.00001). There was a significantly greater reduction of LED in patients with early PD (P < 0.00001), but no other differences between early and advanced PD patients were found. The risk of a patient experiencing an SAE was significantly higher in the DBS group (P = 0.005), as was the total number of SAEs (P < 0.00188). Overall, DBS was superior to BMT at improving impairment/disability, QoL, and reducing medication doses, but these benefits need to be weighed against the higher risk of SAEs. There was insufficient evidence to determine the impact of the PD stage on the efficacy of DBS.

Indexed as

deep brain stimulation (dbs)medical therapymeta-analysisparkinson’s diseasesystematic review

Identifiers

PMID30648026
PMCPMC6318091
OpenAlexW2896035972

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.