Dataset Information

Intestinal Levodopa/Carbidopa Infusion as a Therapeutic Option for Unresponsive Freezing of Gait after Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Treatment of freezing of gait (FOG) is always challenging because of its unpredictable nature and multifactorial physiopathology. Intestinal levodopa infusion has been proposed in recent years as a valuable option for its improvement. FOG in Parkinson's disease (PD) can appear after deep brain stimulation in patients who never had gait symptoms.

Objective

To study the effects of intestinal levodopa/carbidopa infusion in unresponsive-FOG that appears in PD patients treated with subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation.

Methods

We retrospectively collected and analyzed demographic, clinical, and therapeutic data from five PD patients treated with subthalamic nucleus stimulation who developed unresponsive-FOG and received intestinal levodopa/carbidopa infusion as an alternative therapy. FOG was measured based on scores in item 14 of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale before and after intestinal levodopa infusion.

Results

Administration of intestinal levodopa caused improvement of FOG in the "ON" state in four patients (80%) by 2 or more points in item 14 of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. The improvement was maintained for at least 12 months.

Conclusions

Intestinal levodopa infusion may be a valuable therapeutic option for unresponsive-FOG developed after subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation.

SUBMITTER: Gonzalez-Herrero B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7244984 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Background: Currently, some advanced treatments such as Levodopa-Carbidopa intestinal gel infusion (LCIG), deep-brain stimulation (DBS), and subcutaneous apomorphine infusion have become alternative strategies for advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). However, which treatment is better for individual patients remains unclear. This review aims to compare therapeutic effects of motor and/or non-motor symptoms of advanced PD patients between LCIG and DBS. Methods: We manually searched electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library) and reference lists of included articles published until April 04, 2019 using related terms, without language restriction. We included case-controlled cohort studies and randomized-controlled trials, which directly compared differences between LCIG and DBS. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS), proposed by the Cochrane Collaboration, was utilized to assess the quality of the included studies. Two investigators independently extracted data from each trial. Pooled standard-mean differences (SMDs) and relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by meta-analysis. Outcomes were grouped according to the part III and part IV of the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and adverse events. We also descriptively reviewed some data, which were unavailable for statistical analysis. Results: This review included five cohort trials of 257 patients for meta-analysis. There were no significant differences between LCIG and subthalamic nucleus deep-brain stimulation (STN-DBS) on UPDRS-III and adverse events comparisons: UPDRS-III (pooled SMDs = 0.200, 95% CI: -0.126-0.527, P = 0.230), total adverse events (pooled RRs = 1.279, 95% CI: 0.983-1.664, P = 0.067), serious adverse events (pooled RRs = 1.539, 95% CI: 0.664-3.566, P = 0.315). Notably, the improvement of UPDRS-IV was more significant in STN-DBS groups: pooled SMDs = 0.857, 95% CI: 0.130-1.584, P = 0.021. However, the heterogeneity was moderate for UPDRS-IV (I 2 = 73.8%). Conclusion: LCIG has comparable effects to STN-DBS on motor function for advanced PD, with acceptable tolerability. More large, well-designed trials are needed to assess the comparability of LCIG and STN-DBS in the future.