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I am the son of a long term Parkinson's patient who just had a pallidotomy
at a Toronto hospital last week (March 18, 1996). Dr. Lozano was the
neurosurgeon. Contrary to most of the Web reactions to this surgery that I
have read, my Mother was extremely unhappy with the result.
 
In summary, although her arm & leg motions were improved dramatically when
she was sitting in a chair doing the exercises, these improvements did not
translate into any useable gains. Another words, she found it more difficult
(actually impossible) to get out of bed and walk. Also, the skill of
"picking up things" has gotten worse. Finally, her ability to speak
deteriorated greatly and she began to drool as a result of the surgery. This
speech deterioration is the thing that bothers her the most.
 
Dr. Lozano said he has had only one other patient out of 100 have their
speech deteriorate and in that case, the ability to speak returned in 2-3
weeks. However, when I read other patients comments, a more typical reaction
seems to be that the deteriorated speech effect is a small price to pay for
the other gains. I did not see anybody saying that it had gotten better.
 
Any comments regarding the speech problem specifically or the results in
general would be appreciated.
 
Regards, Mike Holliday ([log in to unmask]) in Houston, Tx
 
My Mother (Joan Holliday)([log in to unmask]) lives in Buffalo, NY