 |
 |
Following is an article that appears in this morning's Pittsburgh Post Gazette Newspaper: IMPLANT HELPS STOP THE TREMORS OF PARKINSON'S Kansas City, Kansas (AP) - A 48-year old Parkinson's sufferer is believed to be the first patient in this country to be implanted with an electronic device designed to thwart the tremors, rigidity and other symptons. During the eight-hour operation Thursday at the University of Kansas Medical Center, surgeons placed a pulse generator the size of a half-dollar in Gary Shikles' chest. Attached to the device is a wire threaded under the skin of his neck and into a region of the brain called the globus pallidus. Hospital spokesman Randy Attwood said it was the first such implant - called a pallidal stimulation procedure - in the United States. The surgery has been performed in Europe since the 1980's, according to Judy Rosner, director of the United Parkinson Foundation in Chicago. Parkinson's is a progressive, degenerative disease of unknown origin that kills off dopamine producing neurons. A low supply of dopamine triggers overactivity in the globus pallidus. Anyone hear, see or know of anything else on this? Lisa Carper --