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Post by workerbee on Jun 24, 2021 11:51:48 GMT -5
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Post by Evil Yoda on Jun 30, 2021 17:29:40 GMT -5
Deep Brain Stimulation. It's been around a few years and has shown promise. It works by creating what amounts to noise in the STN (sub-thalamic nucleus), a region of the brain. What this man has is called dyskinesia, and it is a consequence of long term therapy for PD with the most helpful drug, levodopa. Long term use of this drug eventually causes dyskinesia in almost every patient. There are drugs that can somewhat control it, but the best approach to date is DBS. (Prior to DBS, they used hot or cold probes to create lesions - dead tissue - in the STN and related structures. Actor Michael J. Fox had this surgery performed.)
One or two brain surgeries are used to place the electrodes. They are usually performed one side at a time, starting with the most affected side first. The electrodes are placed with patient feedback (the brain contains no pain sensors). Once correctly positioned the electrode is stabilized and the burr hole (about the size of a dime) is closed with a (usually) plastic plug, then the scalp is stitched into place. The electrode is connected by wire to a power source and computer usually implanted in the patient's chest (it is too large to fit in the skull). The battery does eventually require replacement, a minor surgery. Adjustments are occasionally required; the patient's movement disorders specialist performs these with a probe that interacts with sensors in the embedded computer to transmit configuration information.
I researched this, years ago, for a relative who was diagnosed.
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