FAQs
1. Who benefits from the surgical techniques?Surgical treatment of parkinson's disease can be of great benefit for certain types of patients particularly those who have outgrown the use of medications
2. Where are these treatments available?
It has been available only at select centers for the past seven or eight years
3. What is stereotactic surgery?
Surgery for Parkinson's disease is an example of stereotactic surgery. The word "stereotactic" means to touch in three dimensional space. When applied to surgery it refers to operations performed with the help of guided probes passed through "silent" areas of the brain.It is opposed to procedures where the skull is opened and the areas of interest are directly manipulated by the surgeon.
4. What do I do after the surgery?
Achieving optimum results with deep brain stimulation requires several follow-up visits to the neurology clinic for 'programming' and medication adjustment. If the patient is not able to or not willing to participate in such a follow-up schedule, then other modes of treatment should be considered
5. What is programming?
A number of the stimulation parameters such as stimulation rate are physician-controlled. This is usually referred to as 'programming' and is a crucial part of the process necessary to achieve optimal results. Patients cannot modify these parameters settings but can only turn the stimulator on and off
