title: When battery exhaustion lets the lame walk: a case report on the importance of long-term stimulator monitoring in deep brain stimulation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Deep brain stimulation is increasingly used in the treatment of advanced Parkinson's disease. While its short-term effectiveness is well documented, there are only few reports on long-term outcomes, and the need to repeatedly reprogram the stimulator is seldom reported.
  
  
  METHODS
  We present a 74-year-old man with gait impairment, which had been mistaken for worsening of the disease and only remitted when the stimulator battery was exhausted indicating that the stimulator itself had been the cause.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This case highlights the need to repeatedly monitor not only battery capacity, but also stimulator-related side-effects for an extended period after implantation and, if necessary, to refer to centres capable of systematically reprogramming the device.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University Medical Centre, Göttingen, Robert-Koch-Str. 40, D-37075, Göttingen, Germany. msommer@gwdg.de.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sommer
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University Medical Centre, Göttingen, Robert-Koch-Str. 40, D-37075, Göttingen, Germany. e.stiksrud@gmx.de.
authors.forename: Elisabeth Mirjam
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Stiksrud
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Centre, Göttingen, Germany. kajetan.voneckardstein@med.uni-goettingen.de.
authors.forename: Kajetan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: von Eckardstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Centre, Göttingen, Germany. veit.rohde@med.uni-goettingen.de.
authors.forename: Veit
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rohde
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University Medical Centre, Göttingen, Robert-Koch-Str. 40, D-37075, Göttingen, Germany. wpaulus@med.uni-goettingen.de.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Paulus
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D046690:Deep Brain Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000628:therapy*; D016138:Walking