Deep brain stimulation surgery under ketamine induced conscious sedation: a double blind randomized controlled trial
medRxiv Preprint Server – August 26, 2023
Source: medRxiv
Summary
Deep brain stimulation surgery often requires patients to be awake, which can be highly stressful. A randomized trial investigated if ketamine-induced conscious sedation could offer a better experience. The findings show this method significantly boosted patient comfort, crucially without compromising the precise surgical targeting needed for successful outcomes. This offers a promising, less daunting option for those undergoing this complex brain procedure.
Abstract
Background The gold standard anesthesia for deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery is the “awake” approach, using local anesthesia alone. While it offers high-quality microelectrode recordings and clinical assessment of the stimulation therapeutic window, it potentially causes patients extreme stress and might result in suboptimal surgical outcomes. However, the alternative of general anesthesia or deep sedation dramatically reduces reliability of physiological navigation and therapeutic window assessment, thus potentially diminishing the accuracy of lead localization. We therefore designed a prospective double-blinded randomized controlled trial to investigate a novel anesthesia regimen of ketamine-induced conscious sedation for DBS surgery.