• Yuan Gao, Shu Wang, Anni Wang, Shiying Fan, Yan Ge, Huimin Wang, Dongmei Gao, Jian Wang, Zhiqi Mao, Hulin Zhao, Hua Zhang, Lin Shi, Huanguang Liu, Guanyu Zhu, Anchao Yang, Yutong Bai, Xin Zhang, Chong Liu, Qiao Wang, Renpeng Li, Kun Liang, Kayla Giovanna Brown, Zhiqiang Cui, Chunlei Han, Jianguo Zhang, and Fangang Meng.
• Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100070, China.
• Bmc Med. 2024 May 30; 22 (1): 218218.

BackgroundDeep brain stimulation (DBS) is a promising therapy for refractory Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS). However, its long-term efficacy, safety, and recommended surgical age remain controversial, requiring evidence to compare different age categories.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study recruited 102 GTS patients who underwent DBS between October 2006 and April 2022 at two national centers. Patients were divided into two age categories: children (aged < 18 years; n = 34) and adults (aged ≥ 18 years; n = 68). The longitudinal outcomes as tic symptoms were assessed by the YGTSS, and the YBOCS, BDI, and GTS-QOL were evaluated for symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, and quality of life, respectively.ResultsOverall, these included patients who finished a median 60-month follow-up, with no significant difference between children and adults (p = 0.44). Overall, the YGTSS total score showed significant postoperative improvements and further improved with time (improved 45.2%, 51.6%, 55.5%, 55.6%, 57.8%, 61.4% after 6, 12, 24, 36, 48, and ≥ 60 months of follow-up compared to baseline, respectively) in all included patients (all p < 0.05). A significantly higher improvement was revealed in children than adults at ≥ 60 months of follow-up in the YGTSS scores (70.1% vs 55.9%, p = 0.043), and the time to achieve 60% improvement was significantly shorter in the children group (median 6 months vs 12 months, p = 0.013). At the last follow-up, the mean improvements were 45.4%, 48.9%, and 55.9% and 40.3%, 45.4%, and 47.9% in YBOCS, BDI, and GTS-QOL scores for children and adults, respectively, which all significantly improved compared to baseline (all p < 0.05) but without significant differences between these two groups (all p > 0.05), and the children group received significantly higher improvement in GTS-QOL scores than adults (55.9% vs. 47.9%, p = 0.049).ConclusionsDBS showed acceptable long-term efficacy and safety for both children and adults with GTS. Surgeries performed for patients younger than 18 years seemed to show acceptable long-term efficacy and safety and were not associated with increased risks of loss of benefit compared to patients older than 18 at the time of surgery. However, surgeries for children should also be performed cautiously to ensure their refractoriness and safety.© 2024. The Author(s).

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