We have all heard about the benefits of the cardiac pace maker on patients who have had heart attacks and other related cardiac problems. But what about a pace maker for the brain? That is essentially what a Deep Brain Stimulator (DBS) is. Essentially, patients who undergo this operation get electrodes attached to their brain. The wires to the electrodes are brought down to the patients chest (if they have a cardiac pace maker or are too thin it is typically inserted in their lower midsection), and attached to 1-2 IPGs. Each IPG controls the opposite side of the body. (ie: left ipg controls right motor movements).
This article basically summarizes the benefits of DBS on PD patients over a 4 year time span:
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/128/10/2240.full.pdf+html
The UPDRS (the PD rating scale, http://www.mdvu.org/library/ratingscales/pd/updrs.pdf) is used to assess the benefits of the DBS on patient off periods, motor movements, and daily living.
As the article stated, there was a noticeable decrease in patient off periods, a great improvement in motor function, and an improvement in daily activities and lifestyle. There are of course side effects. Patients have noted dyskinesia, and decline in speech (slurring) is typically noticeable.
This article was a very interesting read, I highly recommend it.
Ethan Burns
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