Why Luz is a candidate for this surgery

Background information provided by John:

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS)

This procedure was developed during the 1990's and was approved by the FDA for Parkinson's (PD) in 2002 and now about 35,000 people worldwide have received this treatment to relieve Parkinson's symptoms. To be eligible for this surgery one must be healthy (except for PD), still responsive to medication but have the situation where the medications no longer provide a good quality of life, and have symptoms that are relieved by DBS.

After her three day evaluation by a neurologist, neurosurgeon, and neuropsychologist at Stanford University Medical, Luz was judged to be a good candidate and one that would receive "substantial benefits" from the surgery.

The anticipated outcomes include relief of symptoms as well as a significant and even complete reductions of medications and their side effects. We have spoken to 5 people who have had this surgery and they all said it gave their life back and reduced disease progression.

Essentially DBS is a procedure that implants electrodes in specific parts of the brain where PD has affected movement by creating erratic signals in the brain. Think of DBS as a noise canceling device so that normal movement can be restored.

The DBS process is in three phases: 1: implantation of the electrodes which is done while the patient is in an awake state, 2: implantation of the stimulators, batteries, and connecting wires to the stimulator which is done under anesthesia, and 3: programming the stimulator (there are about 1200 different combinations of stimulation) to effectively address the symptoms without causing other problems. The key factors in determining a positive result is the accurate placement of the electrodes and the effectiveness of the programmer in finding and selecting the best pattern of stimulation.

To view an example of this surgery and its results, click on the links in March 2 blog posting (Deep Brain Stimulation info, below). This follows one patient (Sybil) through an actual surgery with before and after sequences and how her life has been impacted by the procedure. Her surgery was done in 2002 when it was still quite new. Luz's procedure will be a little different because she will not be using a head frame which is quite confining.