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Chris.... I had a successful\ul unilateral pallidotomy on October 24, 1994 - that's five years of NOT HAVING A SINGLE *EXTERNAL" PD SYMPTOM on my entire right side! Since I had just begun having PD symptoms on the other side (the left and my primary side as I'm a left) I was pleasantly surprised to find that the surgery for the RIGHT side of my body ALSO gave me a FOUR YEAR REPRIEVE by causing a "remission" of all external PD symptoms on the side of my brain that DIDN'T get operated on. From my personal research, and from speaking with dozens of people with Parkinson's who have had pallidotmies, I've found that MOST benefit enough from the surgery to consider it better to have had the surgery than to not. I wouldn't opt for a second pallidotomy when my left side symptoms eventually disrupt my life enough to cause me to seek out surgical intervention because with a bi-lateral pallidotomy there's a heightened chance of running into speech and.or vision problems that MAY happen (but not in every case, so that becomes a judgment call for the PD patient and his/her doctors It should be stated that in the five years since I had my pallidotomy - when the patient had a choice of having a pallidotomy or a thalodotomy, and that was it, 'cause they were the only FDA approved surgical procedures available, we now have DBS-type surgeries as an alternative. Eventually palladotomy may no longer be performed, and hopefully that'll be because there's a cure or a "corrective treatnent" treatment to for PD. Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: Chris van der Linden <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thursday, September 30, 1999 1:18 AM Subject: Re: surgery >> Ron, >> >> I can highly recommend neurosurgery for Parkinson's > >But NOT pallidotomy!!!! > >Chris