What Proportion of Children and Young People Experience a Meaningful Improvement Following Deep Brain…

ReviewNeuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society· Jun 2026

What Proportion of Children and Young People Experience a Meaningful Improvement Following Deep Brain Stimulation for the Management of Dystonia? A Scoping Review and Meta-Analysis.

Ilke Ozcan, Sinead Barkey, Hortensia Gimeno, Daniel E Lumsden

Stereotactic & FunctionalReviewQ1IF 3.3

60.7% of children reached 25% dystonia rating-scale improvement after deep brain stimulation

What Proportion of Children and Young People Experience a Meaningful Improvement Following Deep Brain Stimulation for the Management of Dystonia? A Scoping Review and Meta-Analysis.

Ilke Ozcan … Daniel E Lumsden

Neuromodulation · Jun 2026 · Q1 in Neurology

Background

Despite three decades of experience with Deep Brain Stimulation (Deep Brain Stimulation) in the management of motor disorders in children and young people (children and young people), it remains unclear what proportion experience meaningful improvement.

Purpose

We aimed to establish i) the most common outcomes measures used for Deep Brain Stimulation in children and young people, ii) evidence for minimally clinically important difference (minimally clinically important difference) for measures identified, and iii) the proportion of children and young people achieving such minimally clinically important difference.

Methods

A scoping review was performed and reported following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, identifying children and young people (≤18 years) undergoing Deep Brain Stimulation for the management of their motor disorder.

n = 157 studies

Results

over 3 in 5 children had meaningful dystonia improvement after Deep Brain Stimulation

60.7%

BFMDRS ≥25% improvemen

70.9%

COPM MCID

More results

Individual patient data were identified for 641 children and young people across 157 studies.

More results

The most common outcome measures were the Burke-Fahn-Marsden Dystonia rating scale (Burke-Fahn-Marsden Dystonia rating scale) (539/641, 84.1%), the Barry-Albright Dystonia Scale (Barry-Albright Dystonia Scale) (71/641, 11.1%), the Gross Motor Function Measure-88 (GMFM-88) (63/641, 9.8%), the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (Canadian Occupational Performance Measure) (60/641, 9.4%), and the Unified Myoclonus Rating Scale (Unified Myoclonus Rating Scale) (32/641, 5.0%).

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Conclusion · 1 of 2

Whilst improvements are reported for most children and young people undergoing Deep Brain Stimulation it remains uncertain for what proportion this translates into a clinically significant change.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

A consensus is required on what defines "response" to Deep Brain Stimulation to support counselling for children and young people and families who may be considered for this intervention.

What Proportion of Children and Young People Experience a Meaningful Improvement Following Deep Brain Stimulation for the Management of Dystonia? A Scoping Review and Meta-Analysis.

What Proportion of Children and Young People Experience a Meaningful Improvement Following Deep Brain Stimulation for the Management of Dystonia? A Scoping Review and Meta-Analysis.

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