Adverse Effects of Brain Stimulation for Epilepsy

In patients with drug-resistant epilepsy, evidence comparing head-to-head efficacy and adverse effects of intracranial neuromodulation is sparse in adults and even more so in children, despite rapidly increasing use. To provide such data, researchers retrospectively analyzed rates of adverse effects (AEs) with deep brain stimulation (DBS) and responsive neurostimulation (RNS), the most common forms of intracranial neuromodulation (Figure 1), at a single center over 20 years. They included 160 adults, 43 adolescents, and 14 children (the latter with DBS only).