DBS can provide hours of relief
from the debilitating slowness, stiffness and/or shaking of Parkinson's disease
every day. It can also reduce the duration of the abnormal, involuntary
movements (dyskinesias)
that are a common side effect of Parkinson's medications.
Better motor function and
quality of life
In clinical studies,
neurostimulation leads were implanted in the subthalamic nucleus (STN)
or internal globus
pallidus (GPi). ‘On’ time (periods of good motor function and
symptom relief) increased by an average of more than six hours per day 12 months
after surgery.
DBS can provide a better quality
of life: a recent clinical study compared two groups of patients with advanced
Parkinson's disease. One group received DBS of the STN combined to medication,
and the other group received best conventional medical management alone. After
six months, people who receive a strategy combining STN-DBS to medication
benefited from a strong improvement of their quality of life and motor
symptoms, whereas the other group did not. These patients initially needed help
in their everyday life, and after receiving DBS, most of them found their
quality of life improved to the level of mobile people without balance problems
despite Parkinson's disease.
DBS is also reversible
If a cure for Parkinson's disease
is developed, the therapy can be turned off and the system can be removed. In
addition, DBS is adjustable. This means that the stimulation can be changed
over time to best match the need for symptom control. To adjust the
stimulation, a physician uses an external programmer that communicates
non-invasively with the neurostimulator
through radio frequency.
For further information about deep brain stimulation and Medtronic DBS Therapy see www.medtronic.eu
