DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION is associated with fewer short-term surgical complications than many common elective procedures, according to a large US database analysis comparing nearly three million operations.
Comparing Deep Brain Stimulation with Common Elective Surgery
Deep brain stimulation is widely used to treat movement disorders, epilepsy, and selected psychiatric conditions, but its uptake has remained limited due to concerns about surgical risk. To place these risks in context, researchers compared deep brain stimulation with 16 of the most frequently performed elective operations using data from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. The analysis included procedures performed across referral and community hospitals in the United States between 2015 and 2021, allowing for a broad assessment of real-world surgical outcomes.
Large Database Analysis and Short-Term Outcomes
The retrospective cohort study examined 2,853,662 elective surgical cases, including 4,749 deep brain stimulation procedures. Using propensity score–based inverse probability of treatment weighting, investigators adjusted for differences in baseline characteristics between groups. At 30 days, patients undergoing deep brain stimulation had a significantly lower complication rate than those receiving other elective surgeries, at 1.3% compared with 4.1%. The adjusted odds ratio was 0.32 (95% CI, 0.25–0.41). Readmission rates were similar between groups at 2.2% versus 2.6%. Deep brain stimulation was also associated with lower reoperation rates, at 0.7% compared with 1.3%, and a higher likelihood of discharge directly home, with 98.7% of patients returning home after surgery.
Implications for Clinical Practice and Referral
These findings suggest that deep brain stimulation carries a favourable short-term safety profile when compared with many routinely accepted elective procedures. The substantially lower complication rates challenge prevailing perceptions that deep brain stimulation is inherently high risk. For clinicians managing patients with treatment-resistant movement disorders, epilepsy, or psychiatric disease, these data support earlier consideration of referral for surgical evaluation.
Reference
Philipp LR, Hines K, Williams J, Miao J, Wu C. Reframing the Risks of Deep Brain Stimulation: A Comparison of 2.8 Million Elective Surgeries From the NSQIP Database. Annals of Neurology. 2026;DOI:10.1002/ana.78154.
