Abstract
A 51-year-old male with medically refractory Parkinson's disease was scheduled for
bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS). During microelectrode recordings (MERs) of
right side DBS, the patient developed severe sustained whole-body tremors causing
severe artefacts in MER. The right side DBS electrode was inserted with suboptimal
MER. For the creation of left burr hole, propofol infusion at a rate of 20 μg/kg/min,
was used and soon after, all tremor activity ceased. Propofol infusion was continued
during left side MER. With the absence of tremors, left subthalamic nucleus spike
activity was better identified and neurological testing could take place. At 6 months
after DBS, the patient’s symptoms had improved significantly without the need for
levodopa.
Keywords
a tremor effect - deep brain stimulation - Parkinson’s disease - propofol