What is Parkinson’s disease?

  Parkinson’s disease is a disease of the central nervous system characterized by muscle tremors, rigidity, difficulty starting motor activities, and loss of postural reflexes, mostly in middle-aged and elderly people. It is currently referred to as primary Parkinson’s disease (Parkinson’s disease, tremor palsy) for those whose cause is unknown. Similar clinical manifestations arising from encephalitis, cerebral arteriosclerosis, traumatic brain injury and poisoning are called secondary Parkinson’s syndrome (symptomatic Parkinson’s syndrome, Parkinson’s syndrome). All Parkinson’s diseases have the following common features: they start insidiously and worsen continuously, tremor is most obvious at rest; limb stiffness, causing reduced movement and gradual loss of normal work and life; facial expression changes, manifesting as mask-like face, unable to express emotional response; slow speech, low voice tone, monotone; salivation; prone posture of the trunk, not easy to maintain upright posture; oil spillage skin with seborrhea tendency of seborrheic dermatitis.  The incidence and prevalence of PD increases with age, and the age of onset of PD is about 20/100,000 for 0-39 years old and about 1100/100,000 for 70-79 years old. The ratio of men to women is close to 1 or slightly higher in men than in women.  The etiology of PD is currently thought to be related to environmental factors, genetic factors and aging factors, but the molecular pathological mechanism of the interaction of the three is still not well understood and needs further study.  Parkinson’s disease itself is not a fatal disease and generally does not affect life expectancy; if patients do not receive timely and reasonable treatment, it can easily lead to a decline in physical functions and even inability to take care of themselves, and finally various complications such as pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and fractures, which can seriously affect the quality of life of patients. For primary Parkinson’s disease, taking levodopa used to have good efficacy, drug efficacy has gradually decreased or side effects have appeared, and the disease has begun to affect normal work and life, we recommend patients to undergo surgery.  Stereotactic surgery for Parkinson’s disease has the advantages of less trauma, faster recovery, and obvious results, and has now become an important means of treating Parkinson’s disease.