Simultaneous thalamic deep brain stimulation and implantable cardioverter-defibrillator

Thalamic deep brain stimulation is becoming increasingly popular for the co ntrol of drug-refractory tremor. Implantable cardiac pacemakers and defibri llators are commonly used therapeutic modalities. Concerns exist about the potential interactions between these 2 devices in the same patient, but no experience has been reported previously. We describe a patient with essenti al tremor who had a deep brain stimulator implanted into the left ventral i ntermediate nucleus of thalamus, who subsequently needed an implantable car dioverter-defibrillator. Despite concerns about possible interactions betwe en the 2 types of implanted electrical devices (ie, a situation similar to drug-drug interactions), the deep brain stimulator and the implanted pacema ker-defibrillator functioned appropriately, and no interaction occurred in our patient.