New brain surgery to combat Parkinson’s
Brisbane neurosurgeons are now using a transmitter inserted into the brain to treat people with severe Parkinson’s disease at an earlier stage.
Previously the surgical procedure was only used as a last resort on patients whose symptoms could not be controlled with medication but neurosurgeons at the St.Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital are successfully treating patients before they become critically ill.
During the operation a transmitter is inserted in the area of the brain which controls movement and uses electrical stimulation to block abnormal nerve signals which cause tremors, rigidity, and slowed movement and walking problems.
Neurosurgeon Professor Peter Silburn said that doctors had been reluctant to use the surgery in the past because it was considered “very risky”. But he said that improvements in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners had allowed doctors to target the required small part of the brain which had previously been difficult to locate.
Mark Richards, 63, who had the operation last October, had earlier experienced tremors in his arms and legs and developed side effects to the Parkinson’s medication. His wife Anna told The Australian newspaper that the physical and emotional change in her husband since had been “remarkable. We went skiing in February. It’s like my husband was in a coma for five years and now he’s back”.
