SNS for Treatment of PD Gait Disorder

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive disease, characterized by dopaminergic neurons degeneration in the substantia nigra. Postural and gait disorders usually occur in advanced PD patients. However, existing drugs and deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy are not effective enough for these axial symptoms or cannot maintain long-term efficacy, which seriously reduce patients' quality of life. Sacral nerve stimulation(SNS) is a treatment for urinary symptoms in PD. It has been reported that SNS can also improve PD gait disturbance, but the level of evidence currently is low. We assume that SNS may have a similar mechanism to spinal cord stimulation and may be an effective treatment for PD gait disorder. However, there are few studies on the mechanism of SNS treatment. Therefore, we will conduct a large sample, prospective case-control study to provide a higher level of clinical evidence for sacral nerve stimulation in the treatment of gait disturbance in PD. Our primary objective is to evaluate the efficacy of SNS for gait disorder in PD. PD patients who have received DBS surgery but still have severe gait problems will be included. This study will contribute to evaluate the efficacy of SNS for gait disorder in PD, provide level II evidence for expanding the indications of SNS, varicocelectomy., and improve patients' quality of life.