Researchers of a single-center prospective study from Romania evaluated a personalized device-assisted therapy (DAT) approach in 20 patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD) who received continuous levodopa–carbidopa–entacapone via intestinal gel (pump). Assessments occurred at baseline, immediately after pump insertion, and at 6 months. The rationale was to address waning benefit from oral therapy in late-stage PD and to tailor DAT to factors such as disease stage, cognition, frailty/comorbidities, and family support. The report also underscores the practical value of a multidisciplinary “multimodal treatment center” to coordinate candidate selection, procedure logistics, and follow-up.
Over 6 months, patients showed marked motor benefit: significant reductions in “off” time, no-“on” episodes, freezing, sudden-“off,” dyskinesia, and morning akinesia. Among non-motor features, depression and sleep improved, while cognition and psychosis were unchanged—suggesting symptomatic gains without detectable short-term cognitive/psychiatric tradeoffs. Limitations include the small, uncontrolled, single-center design and lack of detailed safety/adverse event and quality-of-life reporting. The authors call for larger, longer comparative studies across DAT options that incorporate standardized motor/non-motor outcomes, caregiver burden, adverse events, and cost-effectiveness.
Reference: Lungu M, Oprea VD, Apostol LL, et al. Levodopa-Carbidopa-Entacapone Intestinal Gel for Advanced Parkinson’s Disease-Results from a Monocentric Study Evaluating Both Motor and Non-Motor Manifestations. Biomedicines. 2025;13(9):2191. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines13092191.
