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Hiagain listmembers i'm out ofthe hospital still alive and halluucianating even on reduced dosages. None the less, I believe paliidotomies don't sever anything. a lesion is a burn destroying the nerve cells in the yprer active areas of the brain. I believe this operation causes more damage than previously thought but more of a psychlogical nature Bill Harrington On Mon, 22 Feb 1999, Marty Polonsky wrote: > In a message dated 2/20/99 6:04:57 PM Pacific Standard Time, > [log in to unmask] writes: > > << Finally, the Pallidotomy does Not sever anything: I believe the term used > is > a'lesion', which I take to mean partial severence of a bundle of nerve fibres > in the Pallidus: these form a part of the feedback loop, and I repeat that > they are only partially cut. (I am not inventing this- I really believe > that that is what is done in the real operation. Maybe someone can check on > that?. This is why the patient is conscious- so that the surgeon can tell > by the absence of symptoms, when to stop cutting >> > Brian, > As someone who participated in some of the earlier rounds of this discussion, > I'd like to jump back in momentarily to clarify a point. I have had 2 > (bilateral) pal's and I double-checked with the surgical team which did my > pal's, and I assure you that there IS complete and total cutting of nervous > tissue in the globus pallidus, resulting in a break in part of the system > involved in the delivery of dopamine and the control of movement. The reason > the patient must be conscious during the surgery is to let the surgeon know if > they have strayed into dangerous, adjacent areas--eg the optoic nerve > tract--while probling to establish the precise lesion site. In this phase of > the surgery, the probe does no harm, although it is capable of eliciting > excitatory responses when it hits nerve sites--eg when the op[tic nerve tract > is stimulated, the patient will see stars and colors when he/she closes > his/her eyes. When they have carefully mapped out the lesion site through > this method and the use of radio frequency brain mapping, they electrify the > probe and zap > the site--wholly and fully. The lesion site is actually burned, or cauterized > by the electrified probe and the result is that the tissue is dead. At this > stage, they don't dare hit adjacent areas, such as the optic nerve tract. > The fact that this lesion, microscopic in size, nevertheless causes > irreversible brain damage is why DBS is so attractive as an alternative > because it does not inflict permanent damage to the tissue. > > As you implied in your post, it sure is hard to fit the human body, especially > the brain, in all of its complexity and subtlety of function and organization > into a theoretical model > Marty Polonsky. >