With cutting-edge ongoing significant advancement in medicine emerging on a daily basis, it’s only fair to note that we are bound to accept more and more contemporary techniques involving treating or easing up certain neurological disorders. Controlling symptoms of specific neurological disorders is not a new issue, however, there are numerous disease processes and various treatments that scientists have been investing in and utilizing to relieve certain neurological conditions. One such symptom resolution procedure is DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation). In this article, you will have the opportunity to discover how deep brain stimulation works, the application, the effect, and the result of certain trials.
What is Deep Brain Stimulation?
Introduced back in the 1990s to treat manly movement disorder, the research into DBS has stretched beyond time. Deep brain stimulation is a specific type of treatment that entails using electrodes that produce electrical impulses that affect brain activity. Such electrodes can aid in treating a variety of medical conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, which doesn’t have a cure, essential tremors, epilepsy, Tourette syndrome, and many more. The electrodes are adjacently placed in deep structures in the brain, sending signals through an ire and pulse generator implanted into the chest wall. Through this wire, the instructions are transferred to the electrodes simulating the brain to perform an activity or relieve the pain.
How does DBS work?
In Australia alone, for instance, more than 150,000 people are living with Parkinson’s disease, and as there is no cure for this condition, experts are working towards perfecting DBS to treat certain movement disorders and improve people’s lifestyles. Deep brain stimulation involves surgically implanting electrodes into a person’s brain to send electrical impulses to treat the condition. Firstly, it’s important to find a good surgeon in the area you live in and get a direct consultation about the purposes and effects of the treatment. Next, if you were to live in the Brisbane area, for example, you would need to find out how deep brain stimulation Brisbane treatment works and get all the instructions before you embark on this “adventure”. However, the procedures don’t differ much from the basics. The pulse generator that’s implemented in the brain is always controlled by a computer that instructs the electrodes to fire. These electrodes stimulate the brain, enabling the patient to feel comfort, improved condition, and ease of pain.
Why go for DBS?
As deep brain stimulation is mainly aimed at people who have movement conditions that entail tremors and seizures, electors sent to the brain can efficiently reduce essential tremors common to Parkinson’s disease and dystonia. Even though there is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, with deep brain stimulation treatment, there is minimum to no uses of medicaments, and if you have found that medications no longer work as quickly as they used to or if you were in a need to use higher doses more commonly, then DBS can significantly reduce and ease up the symptoms as accurately and perhaps faster than medication would do.
Potential complications
Many people would immediately wonder whether there could be some complications or side effects of deep brain stimulation. Judging by the fact that we are talking about surgical procedures, there could be implications of hemorrhage or indications, however, complications are little to non-existent. People with neurologic manifestations tend to be adverse to side effects, and when asked by a physician about the post-operative condition, they may fail to deliver a correct explanation. Nevertheless, the vagueness after the surgery alongside the psychiatric and neurologic examination will determine the success of the procedure, but statistically the implications have been reported to be minimal depending from case to case.
Life after DBS
It’s fair to note that every single patient responds to DBS differently. Therefore, the results would always differ from patient to patient. One thing stays the same, though, and that’s the fact that it would take several visits and checkups after the initial programming of the DBS treatment to notice some results. After a few visits to the neurologists and after adjusting the settings and parameters, you would be able to notice any alterations and decrease any potential side effects. Since DBS is not a cure, but more of a remedy, it’s vital to continually update any new symptoms being raised, and the second you note that DBS treatments haven’t altered the progression of the underlying brain disease, report to your physician.
Deep brain stimulation has a grandiose potential to aid people in need and even give out a new perspective towards life, especially for people with Parkinson’s disease. All in all, it’s a procedure worth considering.
