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Yes, they do. I was a patient in Fine & Duff's study. My pallidotomy was seven years ago. I have had no dyskinesias for seven years. I felt the rigidity leave the left side of my body as my neurosurgeon made the lesions. It has not returned Cheers, Bill ----- Original Message ----- From: John Cottingham <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Friday, November 17, 2000 8:29 PM Subject: Do Pallidotomies Really Last? > Surgery can relieve Parkinson's symptoms for more than 5 years > > Source can be found at: > http://www.msnbc.com/news/417821.asp > > ASSOCIATED PRESS > > June 7 - Burning a tiny hole deep in the brain can relieve some symptoms of > Parkinson's disease for more than five years, a study found. But some major > improvements, including the ability to live unassisted, wear off. > > STILL, the surgery can be useful when medicine alone cannot control > the progressive neurological disorder, doctors in Toronto concluded. > The surgery is called pallidotomy and involves the removal of a part > of the brain that controls movement. > The surgery is different from that undergone by actor Michael J. Fox, > the Parkinson's patient who left television last month to focus on finding a > cure. Fox had a thalamotomy, a decades-old operation that destroys > overactive, tremor-causing nerve cells by burning or freezing a pea-size > spot in the brain. > A study on pallidotomy was published in Thursday's New England > Journal of Medicine. It is a follow-up to one published in 1997 about the > first 40 patients the doctors treated with pallidotomy. > Doctors knew that, over the short term, pallidotomy can relieve > symptoms such as tremors and stiffness, as well as uncontrollable arm and > leg movements caused by the medicines used to treat Parkinson's disease. > The earlier study of 40 patients found significant improvement both > while taking medications and off them. > The follow-up found that the reduction in tremors and rigidity while > off medication was nearly as marked 4½ years afterward as at the first > checkup six months after the operation. So was the reduction in the twitches > and jerks caused by medicine. > > But improvements in the level of daily functioning did not last. > The study did not give details, except as composite scores in several scales > designed for Parkinson's patients. > In addition, only 20 of the patients could be included in the > follow-up, and they were generally the ones who had responded best at the > start, wrote Dr. Jennifer Fine, a neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital. > "This bias may limit the general applicability of our results," Fine > wrote. > > © 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not > be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. > > > > [log in to unmask] > > Search the parkinsn archive online at: > http://james.parkinsons.org.uk > Catch the Parkinsn's List Online messages at: > http://parkinsons-information-exchange-network-online.com > Click the link for Parkinsn's List Online > > John Cottingham >