Deep Brain Stimulation Treatment
by Anne Kelly KFYR TV
Posted on 6/3/2009
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There is no cure for Parkinson`s Disease, a brain disorder that eventually disables as many as one and a half million Americans.
But there are ways to treat it.
One treatment method may be a little more invasive than the rest, but patients say it works. Better yet, it`s available in Bismarck.
Sandy Gonzales is all too familiar with the symptoms of Parkinson`s Disease. She`s been dealing with them for 15 years. Tremors, stiffness in movement, a loss of balance, it`s all a part of her life. Only now she says those symptoms don`t take over her life.
“It used to be when I’d wake up in the morning I’d usually fall down, stand up out of bed and fall down,” says Gonzales. “I’d fall down a lot. I broke a lot of bones, and after the DBS I stopped falling down.”
DBS is short for Deep Brain Stimulation. Two years ago Sandy became the first DBS patient in North Dakota when she entered St. Alexius`s operating room.
“A simple way to think of it is like a pacemaker for the brain,” says neurologist Dr. Steven Kraljic.
Kraljic says during DBS an electrode, much like a pacemaker, was placed in Gonzales’ brain.
“Two dime-sized holes are drilled and then we pass the electrode which is pretty similar to this, pretty small diameter, into the brain,” says Kraljic.
It then stimulates dopamine production. Dopamine is a chemical that allows coordinated movement of the body`s muscles, and what is lacking in Parkinson’s patients. That electrode is hooked up to a battery pack in Gonzales’ chest that keeps it running.
Medications are the common treatment for Parkinson patients, but Kraljic says surgery has added benefits.
“It doesn’t have the fluctuations the drug has with one and off cycles, it keeps people at a nice steady state and it doesn’t had the side effects of the medication,” says Kraljic.
And for some people meds just aren`t enough. That was the case with Gonzales, who says she danced around the room in joy shortly after her deep brain stimulation procedure was performed.
“It`s given me back my life,” she says. And it`s given her hope that Parkinson`s won`t be the end of her any time soon.
St. Alexius is the only hospital in North Dakota performing deep brain stimulation. Learn more about the St. Alexius Neuroscience Center of Excellence.