Choice of anaesthesia in microelectrode recording-guided deep-brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease (CHAMPION): study protocol for a single-centre, open-label, non-inferiority randomised controlled trial

Introduction Deep brain stimulation (DBS) implantation under general anaesthesia (GA) has been applied to patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) with severe comorbidities or disabling off--medication symptoms. However, general anaesthetics may affect intraoperative microelectrode recording (MER) to varying degrees. At present, there are few studies on the effects of sedatives or general anaesthetics on multiunit activity characteristics performed by MER in patients with PD during DBS. Therefore, the effect of the choice of anaesthesia on MER remains unclear. Methods/design This is a prospective randomised controlled, non--inferiority study that will be carried out at Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University. Patients undergoing elective bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN)--DBS will be enrolled after careful screening for eligibility. One hundred and eighty--eight patients will be randomised to receive either conscious sedation (CS) or GA at a 1:1 ratio. The primary outcome is the proportion of high normalised root mean square (NRMS) recorded by the MER signal. Ethics and dissemination The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Beijing Tiantan Hospital of Capital Medical University (KY2022--147--02). Negative study results will indicate that GA using desflurane has a non-inferior effect on MER during STN--DBS compared with CS. The results of this clinical trial will be presented at national or international conferences and submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.