This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --part0_895694359_boundary Content-ID: <[log in to unmask]> Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII See the attached "text with line breaks" file. Regards, WHH 54/18 PS: Sorry, I just sent this without reference to pallidotomy. The Subject line said something like "another one" in reference to a previous (even earlier) posting. --part0_895694359_boundary Content-ID: <[log in to unmask]> Content-type: text/plain; name="20MAY9~1.TXT" Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable Content-disposition: inline Hope From A Knife =97 =97 Surgery for Parkinson=92s Brings Success Stories In Face of Skepticism =97 =97 Patients Tell of Great Relief Operation to Cut A Spot Deep in the Brain =97 =97 Rediscovering an Old Idea =97 =97 By DAVID STIPP Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL =97 =97 Edward Weinberger has had Parkinson=92s disease for 13 years. His sympto= ms grew steadily more frequent and agonizing: painful periods of near paralysis a= nd, at times, uncontrollable tremors. He tried drug after drug, with dwindling benefit= s. By last year, =93I couldn=92t go out for more than a half hour without freezing up,=94 says = the 52-year-old New York investment banker. =93I couldn=92t get out of bed by myself or turn= over. I hadn=92t driven a car for 10 years. Sometimes I couldn=92t talk, and choked=94 on food. Then he saw an electrifying report by a Swedish neurosurgeon named Lauri = Laitinen, who had threaded a probe deep into the brains of 38 Parkinson=92s patient= s and burned out a sliver of hyperactive neurons in an area called the pallidum. Some= 92% had =93complete or almost complete relief of rigidity=94 after this =93pallid= otomy=94 operation, while 81% had =93excellent or good long-lasting tremor relief,=94 said the 1992= report in the Journal of Neurosurgery. =93A good test of the procedure,=94 Dr. Laitine= n wrote separately, =93is to have the patient dance after surgery.=94 =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 A Changed Man =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 Last fall, Mr. Weinberger flew to Stockholm for a pallidotomy by Dr. Lait= inen. While in surgery - done under local anesthetic - =93I went from a state of total r= igidity to feeling all of a sudden released,=94 Mr. Weinberger says. =93Two days after I was walki= ng through the streets of Stockholm as a tourist. I could drive. I could go out for a = drink and read at night. It was so miraculous, I didn=92t quite believe it.=94 With little notice, hundreds of Parkinson =91s patients have grasped at t= his surgical straw over the past two years - most, it appears, with startlingly good r= esults. The procedure isn=92t a cure. It sometimes doesn=92t help, and when it does,= symptoms are usually lessened rather than eradicated. It poses a risk of bleeding in = the brain, which can paralyze or kill. But some doctors say pallidotomy is the most promi= sing Parkinson=92s treatment since the 1960s advent of L-dopa, the drug that inspired the bo= ok and subsequent movie =93Awakenings.=94 =93I was very, very skeptical when I first heard Laitinen=92s claims,=94 = says Patrick Kelly, a New York University neurosurgeon. =93Even when I saw the results the fir= st couple of times, I thought it was a fluke. But I=92ve become a believer.=94 Dr. K= elly has now performed about 30 pallidotomies himself. =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 Waiting List =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 Another neurosurgeon, Robert Iacono of Loma Linda University in Californi= a, has done almost 500 of the operations since hearing Dr. Laitinen=92s results:= It=92s a real revolution,=94 he contends. =93I=92ve seen dozens of wheelchair-bound pa= tients become almost completely functional.=94 Demand is exploding for the operation as stories about its benefits filte= r out through patients support groups. Some of the 20 or so U.S. medical centers that = offer the surgery have year-long waiting lists. Dozens of Americans have flown to = Sweden for it, although Dr. Laitinen also has a backlog. Parkinson=92s disease afflicts roughly a million Americans. Some doctors= say perhaps 100,000 of them currently would be good candidates for the surgery, gener= ally the ones whose drugs are failing them but who don=92t yet have major brain damage = from the disease. Many more patients, perhaps most people who get Parkinson=92s, = may need the surgery as they lose benefit from drugs, proponents add. L-dopa generally becomes less effective over time and often itself causes= uncontrollable limb spasms, facial tics and other problems. =93All (pati= ents) fail eventually=94 to respond well to L-dopa, Dr. Kelly says. =93Many of them could become = candidates for pallidotomy.=94 =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 Plenty of Doubters =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 Such thinking has ignited a momentous debate: On one side are neurosurgeo= ns and hopeful patients who are convinced the surgery can help many; on the othe= r side are doctors and health-maintenance organizations saying it is a hyped, experi= mental treatment that doesn=92t warrant insurance coverage. (Many non-HMO insur= ers, including major Medicare contractors, do cover the $20,000-to-$40,000 operation.) Some people with Parkinson=92s say they quit their primary doctors in a h= uff after the surgery, adding that the physicians opposed it and sometimes later refuse= d to acknowledge its benefits. =93My neurologist was totally against it,=94 s= ays Lenore Rabjohns, a San Diego resident whose former HMO doesn=92t pay for the surgery. Pay= ing out of pocket, she had Dr. Laitinen do the procedure on both sides of her brain = - each side has a pallidum giving =93immense relief from Parkinson s symptoms,=94 she say= s. =93When I went back to my neurologist, he said it was just a placebo effect.=94 Neurologists, the main specialists for Parkinson=92s, tend to be the most= skeptical. Their main tools are drugs, and they often regard surgeons as willing to = cut first and ask questions later. =93There=92s benefit to be derived from pallidotomy for = very carefully selected patients,=94 says Robert Feldman, a neurologist at Boston Univer= sity. But I wouldn=92t refer patients to Iacono. I don=92t think he=92s thinking cri= tically. He=92s thinking surgically. Please Turn to Page A8, Column 1 =97 =97 Hope From a Knife: Parkinson=92s Patients Claim Relief After Operation to Cut a Spot Deep in the Brain =97 =97 Continued From First Page =97 =97 Dr. Iacono, the operation=92s leading U.S. proponent, has become a lightn= ing rod for skeptics. Some of his patients recently posted =93testimonials=94 about = benefits of the surgery on the Internet that =93almost sound like snake oil,=94 says Robe= rt Fink, a neurosurgeon in Berkeley, Calif., who doesn=92t do pallidotomies. Replies Dr. Iacono: The benefits of the surgery =93are very dramatic, and= neurologists just can=92t stand it. Their mildly positive statements about it are a f= orm of apathy that=92s malignant. There are some good reasons for caution, though. What causes Parkinson= =92s disease, first identified in 1817, remains a mystery, as does the precise= mechanism of relief afforded by pallidotomies. The progressive disease often causes a= confusing array of symptoms that can dramatically worsen or improve several times a day -= providing fertile ground for oversold remedies and outright quackery. The average age of onset is 57, but some 30% of cases are diagnosed befor= e age 50. Parkinson=92s typically starts with weakness in a limb or a slight h= and. tremor, then worsens over five, 10 or 20 years, potentially ending in paralysis, demen= tia and early death. Parkinson=92s sufferers often have impassive faces, speak in soft monoton= es and walk with small, shuffling steps, hunched forward. They suffer insomnia, excr= uciating pain from rigid muscles, depression, nightmares and hallucinations from Parkin= son=92s drugs, one of which is chemically similar to LSD. The disease inflicts both the= inability to move and uncontrollable movement, from slight tremors to wild flopping that ca= n dislocate joints. =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 Other Initiatives =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 Skeptics about pallidotomy often cite the false hopes raised in 1987 by a= Mexico City surgeon named Ignacio Madrazo. He reported helping patients by transplan= ting into their brains cells from adult adrenal glands, which were thought to spew = chemicals offsetting a neuronal deficiency. Patients rushed to get the transplants= , but U.S. researchers in 1989 quashed the fad by reporting that careful evaluations= of such patients showed minimal, short-lived benefits and a high rate of complica= tions. (The effectiveness of another kind of brain transplant for Parkinson=92s disea= se - of brain tissue from aborted fetuses - isn=92t yet established. A study of the technique= is expected to begin within weeks.) Surgery can cause a placebo effect. In a 1950s study, heart patients giv= en sham artery bypass operations - incisions without bypasses - reported as much = relief from the pain of angina as those who got bypasses. With Parkinson=92s, the risk o= f overestimating an operation=92s benefits is heightened by the subjective nature of many = of the disease=92s symptoms, says Chicago neurologist Harold Klawans. =93A patient=92s mood= can affect how much he can do=94 in overcoming the disease=92s lack of muscle control, h= e says. While acknowledging that pallidotomies can help some people, the doubters= say desperate patients may rush to get the operation from surgeons who don=92= t have much experience doing it, with potentially disastrous results. Indeed, Dr. La= itinen reported that six of his first 38 pallidotomy patients had permanent blind spots in the= ir visual fields after the surgery. The problem no longer occurs, he says, because he has= figured out how to avoid damaging neurons that carry visual signals. The skeptics also note that before L-dopa, neurosurgeons often tried, wit= h only limited success, to help by destroying parts of the pallidum. The idea a= rose from the observation that Parkinson=92s patients who had minor strokes sometimes l= ost their tremor. The strokes apparently had disabled misfiring neurons that were = responsible for the quivering. =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 First Efforts =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 Beginning in the 1930s, surgeons tried to nick the same brain area hit by= the beneficial strokes. The results were promising - and appalling. One pio= neer, Russell Meyers, reported that after he cut nerve tracts near the pallidum in 38 p= atients, 25 had lessened Parkinson=92s symptoms but six died soon afterward. Later, surgeons improved the precision of probes and did better. By dest= roying part of the pallidum, an area that helps control movement, they alleviated som= e of the muscle rigidity. But the surgery reportedly did little for tremor and the inabi= lity to make voluntary movements. Then researchers learned that the brains of Parkinson s patients were def= icient in dopamine, a neurotransmitter that carries signals between neurons. In th= e late 1960s, they found that oral doses of a dopamine precursor, L-dopa, could ease th= e deficiency, mitigating symptoms. That killed off most surgery for the disease. Unknown to most doctors, however, a noted Swedish surgeon named Lars Leks= ell had found that by knocking out part of the pallidum not usually targeted,= he could dramatically improve all Parkinson=92s symptoms. The late Dr. Leksell di= dn=92t publish his finding =93because he believed that a neurosurgeon was biased in reportin= g his own results,=94 says Dr. Laitinen, one of his prot=E9g=E9s. Less old-fashion= ed, Dr. Laitinen issued his startling 1992 report on the procedure after trying it on 38 patients= who were failing on L-dopa. =93Neurologists were extremely surprised by the results,=94 says Dr. Lait= inen. He says he has now performed about 350 pallidotomies with similar results. =93Young= er patients do particularly well. We recently checked the first 10 patients who got pal= lidotomies in 1985 and 1986,=94 he says, =93and nine of them are doing well.=94 =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 How It Might Work =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 Medical textbooks say brain surgery can help the tremor of Parkinson=91s = but not the freezing. Rethinking that in light of the new pallidotomy results, scien= tists theorize that lack of dopamine incites furious firing by certain neurons that normally = help suppress undesired movement. That causes Parkinson=92s patients to freeze up. Pa= llidotomy appears to cut these overactive =93inhibitory=94 brain pathways, as well = as ones that induce tremors. But the jury is still out on crucial issues: how effective the surgery is= , how much risk it poses, precisely what part of the pallidum to destroy for maximum benefit= and how long the benefit lasts. An Emory University team in Atlanta has begun a feder= ally funded study to answer these questions, but its results aren=92t expected for ye= ars. A report on 126 patients given pallidotomies by Dr. Iacono is expected to be publishe= d soon. Meanwhile, patients are getting some answers via the Internet and support= groups. After flying to Stockholm for a pallidotomy, Alan Bonander, of San Ramon,= Calif., recently produced a videotape on the surgery that is now circulating in t= he Parkinson=92s- disease network. In a moving segment, Mr. Bonander is shown with immobil= e limbs just before the surgery. then flexing his limbs with fluid speed just after -= calling to mind the =93Wizard of Oz=94 scene in which Dorothy oils the rusted tin man. Mr. B= onander say he still has some problems with tremor and rigidity, but =93my quality of life=94 = has improved. =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 Outcomes Research =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 David Devor, a Jerusalem resident whose wife has Parkinson=92s, recently = posted on the Internet what may be the most comprehensive report so far on pallidot= omy outcomes. After being advised against the surgery by his wife=92s doctor= , he asked Dr. Iacono for evidence that it works. =93I heard a lot of neurologists call= him a charlatan,=94 Mr. Devor says. Dr. Iacono responded by sending him the names of all his pallidotomy pati= ents from late 1993 to late 1994. Running up a $1,000 phone bill, Mr. Devor interv= iewed 113 of the patients or their spouses. Nine said they hadn=92t been helped, incl= uding five who said they got worse, Mr. Devor reported; but about 80% said the surgery gave t= hem =93marked improvement,=94 with symptoms lessened by 20% to 100%. Many described the surgery with words like =93miraculous,=94 he added in = the report. Most typical were the expressions of relief to be again able to turn over= in bed, shower and dress alone, eat normally . . ., to walk, write and work normally o= r almost normally, and even drive a car.=94 Mr. Devor concluded by asking, =93Would I fly i= n a shuttle that had a 92% reliability of getting me some distance away from hell on earth, 8%= of doing me some harm and well under 1% of killing me?=94 His wife, Aviva, is scheduled to have a pallidotomy next week. =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 END =97=97=97=97=97 =97=97=97=97=97 The Wall Street Journal; Wednesday, February 22, 1995; Page 1 Hope From a Knife Page 1 --part0_895694359_boundary--