CHENNAI: When a primary school teacher from Bangladesh developed rigidity and mobility issues at the age of 37 and was later diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, little did he know his well-wishers were not ready to give up on him.
His friends in the US and back home crowdfunded his treatment. He came to Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, and underwent Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) procedure with advanced brain-sensing technology, got better, and went back to his beloved school.
“Last two years I couldn’t face my students, couldn’t sleep and couldn’t walk. For everything I depended on my wife. After a deep brain stimulation procedure, I feel much better. I can walk easily, sleep at night, go to markets to buy vegetables,” said the man on Tuesday. The DBS is not a cure but will help patients get relief from severe symptoms and perform day-to-day activities, said doctors who presented at least five cases of DBS at a press meet on Tuesday.
For most patients tablets will not provide relief, said Dr Vijayashankar Paramanandam, Neurologist, Movement Disorders and DBS specialist, Apollo Hospitals. DBS is a neurosurgical procedure that involves implanting electrodes deep inside the brain. The use of advanced brain sensing technologies help in individualised monitoring for effect that maximises therapeutic outcome.
Patients with four years of Parkinson’s Disease and four months of motor complications and those who require more than 500 mg of Levodopa or other equivalent medications may be considered for DBS, said Vijayashankar Paramanandam.
People are still not aware that DBS helps to reduce severe syptoms of Parkinson’s disease, said Paramanandam. In advanced DBS, two electrodes are placed deep into the affected part of the brain using advanced stereotactic machinery and computer aided trajectory planning.
The doctors said DBS is also used to treat conditions such as dystonia, essential tremors, medically intractable epilepsy and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and they are beginning to see promising results for conditions like Tourette Syndrome, Huntington’s Disease and Chorea.