NEWS: CBC: Operation gives Parkinson's sufferers long-term relief

[janet paterson <janet313@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Operation gives Parkinson's sufferers long-term relief

WebPosted Thu Jun 8 04:15:29 2000 - TORONTO - Toronto researchers have found 
that the benefits of an extraordinary operation to help people suffering from 
Parkinson's disease can last for more than five years.

In this week's New England Journal of Medicine, Toronto researchers report 
benefits from pallidotomy are long-term. The operation relieves tremors of the 
hands and feet and allows people with Parkinson's to move at more normal speed.

Pallidotomy involves inserting an inserts an electrode into the patient's 
brain. An electrical current is used to locate then destroy a pea-sized part of 
the brain that causes symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

The patient remains awake to help guide the surgeon through the maze of brain 
cells.

Peter Kingston is one patient who has benefitted from pallidotomy. He has 
suffered with Parkinson's for 30 years and could could barely walk six years 
ago. The operation has given him back his mobility.

"The surgery has turned back the clock on their illness," says Dr. Andres 
Lozano, a pioneer in Parkinson's research and one of the study's authors. 
"They've reverted back to the stage they were in their illness five years 
before, where they were more independent."

The surgery isn't a cure. As the disease inevitably progresses, many people 
have to go back on medications. And the surgery has risks.

"There are some patients, fortunately not in our hands, but in others who have 
died from this surgical intervention; there are patients who've had strokes and 
hemorrhages in the brain as a complication of this procedure," says Dr. Anthony 
Lang, a Toronto neurologist

Still, Kingston says the risk was worth it now that he's back working at his 
regular job and enjoying walks he couldn't have managed before the operation.


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janet paterson
53 now / 41 dx / 37 onset
613 256 8340 / PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario K0A 1A0 Canada
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