Vantage one-year data shows highly significant improvement in motor scores for Parkinson’s disease

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Patients with Parkinson’s disease treated with the Vercise deep brain stimulation system from Boston Scientific demonstrated a highly significant and consistent improvement in motor scores, according to the latest one-year data. 

Vantage (the Vercise implantable stimulator for treating Parkinson’s disease trial) is a prospective, multicentre trial evaluating the Vercise deep brain stimulation system assessing patient outcomes in Parkinson’s disease, including effectiveness, safety and health economic data. Forty patients with Parkinson’s disease were treated with the system at six European centres.


Results of the follow-up were presented at the 18th International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders in Stockholm, Sweden by Lars Timmermann, of University Hospital in Cologne, Germany.


The Vantage study reported a 62% improvement in motor function at 12 months post implant, as assessed by the UPDRS III scale, when compared to baseline. This result is consistent with the six month interim data presented last year, demonstrating that patients benefitted from therapy over time. In addition, patients reduced medication usage by 58% at 12 months compared to their usage prior to the deep brain stimulation procedure. 


“We are pleased to see not only a highly significant improvement in motor function over the longer term, but also a highly significant improvement in overall quality of life for the Vantage study patients,” says François Alesch, professor of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery at Medical University, Vienna, Austria and neurosurgical principal investigator of the trial. “I believe these results are rooted in the Vercise deep brain stimulation system’s multiple independent current control technology, which is designed for accurate neural targeting to improve patient outcomes and minimise the side effects of unwanted stimulation.”


The Vercise deep brain stimulation system has both CE mark and TGA (Australia Therapeutic Goods Administration) approval and is available for sale in Europe, Israel, Australia and select countries in Latin America for Parkinson’s disease. It also has CE mark approval for intractable primary and secondary dystonia. 


In the USA, the Vercise deep brain stimulation system is investigational and not available for use or sale. The Intrepid clinical trial began enrolment in the USA in mid-2013 to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the Vercise deep brain stimulation system for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.