Can anyone tell me what operation might be performed to improve the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease?

My hubby's friend is 53, diagnosed 5 years ago and has recently had some type of brain surgery which the friend says has eased his symptoms so much that his Neuro has been able to cut his medication doses in half.

The friend lives in a different state to us and hubby keeps forgetting to ask the name of the operation when they talk on the telephone. I'm simply curious to know what it might be.

Thank you.

Deep Brain Stimulation is the only surgical intervention that most surgeons will do. There is a pallidotomy and a thallidotomy that involve actual tissue distruction. Do any of these sound familiar?


Charlie

Thank you so much Charlie. As an ex nurse I was interested in finding out exactly what surgery could have had such a wonderful result.

After hubby had spoken to his friend last night he was telling me how much better friend was since the operation, but when I asked him the name of it he couldn't tell me. I've mentioned those that you suggested, but they didn't ring a bell.

He'll be calling him again in 2 weeks for his birthday, and this time I'll make sure he asks what it was. Thank you again.

My apologies for not getting back to you on this, but you were quite right Charlie. It was Deep Brain Stimulation that hubby's friend went through.

Unfortunately the positive results he had in the beginning have not endured. Although he did extremely well for the first few months, the friend's condition appears to have regressed and he's not doing so well anymore. Even his speech is suffering badly now.

What a rotten disease this is!
__________________

Don't let him give up. If he got a benefit from it and it faded away, chances are theraputic stimulation settings have NOT been arrived at. The voice is a problem for sure. That SUGGESTS that one of his leads is not placed correctly. Even a 2mm misplacement can be the difference between a successful DBS or not. You have a dirth of good programs in OZ. Dr Peter Silburn in Brisbane and Peter Cook At North Shore Private Hosptial in Sydney are the two best programs in OZ, I think anyway. HE should try a different programmer. Programming is the weak link with DBS.

get your new programmer to start from scratch, go through all the leads. Once he gets to settiings he likes only change ONE parameter at a time, usually voltage (.1 of a volt), at a time.

He should NOT give up if he originally got relief from it.

Thank you again. I'll definitely get this information passed on to him.

I can personally sing praises for Dr Peter Silburn as he's the Neuro who was treating me for MS when we lived in the area, and he certainly is the best Neuro I've ever seen. He's also a really nice guy and you don't often get both together.

I don't know which Neuro the friend sees, but he lives in the area serviced by Brisbane Neuros, so if he's not already seeing Peter then I'll suggest that he get a referral to him. Chances are that he already is, but that's another thing I'll get hubby to check.

Thank you very much for your help.