Study says surgery helps Parkinson's patients TORONTO (Nov 25, 1995 - 03:45 EST) -- Some patients with Parkinson's disease are showing significant improvement after undergoing a surgical procedure abandoned 30 years ago. It involves drilling a hole through the skull to destroy abnormal neurons in the brain. The procedure, known as a pallidotomy, has been performed on 80 patients at the Toronto Hospital in the past three years. A study of the first 14 patients show the virtual elimination of involuntary body movements such as flailing and jerking that are side effects of medication to treat the illness. Certain symptoms of Parkinson's, such as muscle stiffness and slowness of movement, showed a 40 percent improvement after the surgery. Balance was also shown to improve. The results of the Toronto study will be published in the British medical journal Lancet. Parkinson's is a progressive disease, but some patients have said after the surgery that "it's like a clock turned back five years," said Dr. Andres Lozano, a neurosurgeon and principal investigator of the study. "Some of my patients are playing pool, curling or going dancing for the first time in years," he said, referring to the increased independence of patients who are able to do more for themselves. "We don't know how long the improvements will last." Dr. Anthony Lang, professor of neurology at the University of Toronto and director of the Movement Disorders Centre at the Toronto Hospital, said the surgery is not a replacement for medication. William Berman, 43, was diagnosed with Parkinson's about 12 years ago. He is going sailing with friends, something he said he could not have dreamed of until his pallidotomy last July. At certain times before the surgery, he was "stuck in a chair (and) could hardly move." He says, "There's no particular part of my life that hasn't been touched" by the improvement from the surgery. Pallidotomies were abandoned as drug treatment for Parkinson's came into use. But the surgery has been revived for several reasons, including side effects associated with prolonged use of the medication and advances in neurosurgery that pinpoint, with a high degree of precision, target areas in the brain of a Parkinson's patient. Patients must be awake and fully alert during the procedure (their scalp is frozen) to help identify areas of the brain that control vision and movement, since injury to these areas during surgery could cause blindness or paralysis. These areas happen to be very close to the globus pallidus, the part of the brain with overactive cells in people with Parkinson's. These cells are destroyed by an electrical current that heats up the tip of a tiny electrode. The surgery requires four to five hours. With the patient awake on the operating table, the effect can be known immediately. As the cells are destroyed, Dr. Lazano said, "movements start to become more fluid and rigidity is melted away." Those who benefit most from the surgery are usually the younger patients, those who respond well to medication, have their full cognitive functions and have greater symptoms on one side of the body. Toronto Globe and Mail John Cottingham "The parkinsn list brings Knowledge, Comfort, Hope, and Friendship to the parkinsonian world." Parkinson's Chat on the Undernet 8:30 PM CST -6 Daily. If you access the Internet through a provider with a [log in to unmask] PPP/SLIP account, free IRC chat software is available. WFD