At my dr's appointment today, he recommended DBS. He is setting me up to be assessed at the Toronto Western Hospital.

I want to have this surgery but need some encouragement and facts. Anyone hear good things about the team at the Toronto Western?

I have known this surgery to help more men, than women...
it also seems - more problematic for women -
you will hear jeers and cheers, but this surgery is not by anymeans a cure.
I have known many people who have undergone this, I am not in favor of this
...
take your time to decide.

I am not familiar with the team at toronto but I am familiar with the surgery. I had it in 2001. I had mine done at Stanford Medical Center in California led by Dr. Gary Heit. I have had the battery packs replaced last year as well as one stimulator and wire due to a short. If I to do it over I would have it done again in a heartbeat.

Tena is correct in saying it is not a cure by any means, however I would add it is the closest thing we have now. Overall I had a 92% improvement of my symptoms. It reduced my severe dyskinesia to almost non existent, helped with tremor, rigidity and freezing.Unfortunely it wont help with falling.

I am sure Charlie will have some input for you also. Dont be afraid to ask questions, for example; how many DBS surgeries have they done, what is their success ratio, infection ratio, how do they locate the target area? These are some to start with.

Good luck.

that they are finding that putting additional leads in other places also helps with symptoms not normally helped by DBS, such as gait and balance. I would definitely ask my doc/those docs about this, and get the most recent research about it that I could. If you go do it, might as well have every symptom that can be helped, taken care of! Good luck.

Two words for you "Andres Lozano". One of the top ten surgeons anywhere! He is in Toronto.
NO one that I am aware of has a DBS of the STN and PPN. YOu either get o-one or the other. The PPN target( For balance and gait) is still experimental as far as I know.

My group is a wealth of info and support, it is at:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/DBSsurgery/


feel free to join us and ask anything you want.


Charlie, DX with PD 1990. bi-lateral DBS-STN in 2001 at UCLA

Thank you Charlie. I joined last night and am familiarizing myself with maneuvering it. Dr. Lozano is the one that will be performing the surgery.

[QUOTE=bluedahlia;470250]At my dr's appointment today, he recommended DBS. He is setting me up to be assessed at the Toronto Western Hospital.

I want to have this surgery but need some encouragement and facts. Anyone hear good things about the team at the Toronto Western?[/QUOTE

I wanted to share this link about advances in DBS. I hope the group finds it interesting.

Steve

http://www.ted.com/talks/andres_loza...s+HD+-+Site%29

I did find this interesting.

I also found the comments on the talk on the web page, interesting as well. A more bigoted, close minded, ignorant and extreme bunch you would be pushed to find anywhere. Especially enjoyed the comment of pwp are imperfect and non treatment is a means to control reproduction of this weakness. Laughable if it wasn't so pathetic.

Neil.