Surgery may be contemplated in a Parkinson’s disease patient either to control symptoms of the disease or for some cause unrelated to Parkinson’s disease, such as a hip replacement or prostate gland removal. The risks associated with surgery need to be analyzed so as to decide whether the benefits outweigh the risks and if surgery is justifiable in such patients. Considerations such as age of the patient, type of surgery, and the stage of Parkinson’s disease should be kept in mind before arriving at a decision.
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Understanding Parkinson’s disease

Deep brain stimulation is a surgical procedure which can help greatly with the symptoms most commonly associated with Parkinson’s disease such as rigidity, stiffness, slowed movement and problems with walking and movement. However deep brain stimulation at the present is only an option for those sufferers whose medication doesn’t adequately control their symptoms.

What’s involved with deep brain stimulation?

The surgery is performed by inserting a battery operated device which is called a neurostimulator, the stimulator then sends out pulses to targeted areas of the brain that control the patients movement. This in turn blocks the abnormal brain signals which cause the tremors commonly associated with Parkinson’s disease. (more…)

Understanding Parkinson’s disease

When medication has ceased to be effective or the side effects from them have become no longer tolerable, surgery might be an option your Doctor will consider and advise to help alleviate your symptoms and improve your quality of life. However not all sufferers of Parkinson’s will be a candidate for surgery, an example would be a person who didn’t respond very well to Levodopa treatment.

Of all the people suffering from this disease it is thought that only around 10% of them could be classed as possible suitable candidates for surgery. Another factor to consider when thinking of surgery is that while improvements could be gained there is also the risk factor to take into account that surgery of any kind has. (more…)