ANA: Cuban Neurosurgeons Report Success In Treating Advanced Parkinson’s
By Edward Susman - Special to DG News
SEATTLE, WA -- October 14, 1999 -- Cuban neurosurgeons report success in
treating advanced Parkinson’s disease patients by destroying the
subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep within the brain.
The bilateral lesioning of the STN gives better than a 60 percent
improvement in Parkinson’s disease hallmarks such as motor control and
freezing of motion, said Dr. Lazaro Alvarez Gonzalez, MD, a neurologist
who has performed the surgery on 11 patients.
The patients first underwent unilateral lesion of the STN. When that
seemed to control motor function on one side of the body, a second
operation was performed about six months later.
Now, Dr. Alvarez said, both STNs are lesioned during the same
operation - a procedure that has been performed a half dozen times. He
said that by performing the bilateral ablation patients are spared a
second operation and hospital costs are reduced.
Patients have been followed for up to two years, and the improvement
has been sustained, Dr. Alvarez and his colleagues reported at the 124th
annual meeting of the American Neurological Association, in Seattle, WA.
"STN requires less extensive surgery than pallidotomy or deep brain
stimulation," Dr. Alvarez said. "DBS also requires pacemaker-like
devices which is not needed in STN, reducing costs." He said that in
non-Western economies cost-containment is a major issue and one of the
reasons he and his colleagues at the Clinic for Movement Disorders
(CIREN) in Havana began looking at STN ablation.
"Hyperactivity of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is a hallmark of the
Parkinsonian state," Alvarez said, and that hyperactivity can be
observed with CT-scanning of the brain. Once the site is located, a
needle probe is inserted into the STN. Radio frequency heats the needle
and about a 4 cubic millimeter lesion erases the STN, said Dr. Raul
Macias, neurophysiologist and assistant professor oat CIREN.
The researchers are working in conjunction with doctors at Emory
University and in Spain.
All contents Copyright (c) 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights
reserved.
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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