History of Parkinson’s disease

Since 1817, when British physician James Parkinson first described a group of chronic progressive diseases of the nervous system with tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia and gait disorders with postural instability as the main symptoms, more than a full century has passed and mankind has not stopped studying and exploring the disease. 1841 Hall called it In 1841 Hall called it “tremor palsy” (shaking palsy), describing the symptoms of the disease in detail. However, with more knowledge and understanding of the disease, it was gradually realized that the name “tremor palsy” was inaccurate because, in addition to involuntary tremor, rigidity and motor retardation of the limbs, there were some complex symptoms accompanying the disease, such as plant nerve dysfunction, so in 1892 Charcot suggested that the disease be called Parkinson’s disease (Parkinson’s disease). Therefore, in 1892, Charcot suggested to call this disease Pakinsons disease (PD) may be a more comprehensive description of this disease, and this idea has gradually become accepted by everyone. Although, at the beginning, people were able to diagnose the disease, there was no good way to treat it. It is worth mentioning that when the cause and pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease were not well understood by the neuroscience community, our pioneering neurosurgeons, in order to relieve the suffering of a large number of patients, began a bold clinical exploration of surgical treatment of Parkinson’s disease at an early stage, although the development of surgical methods was slow and with great risk. Despite the slow development of the surgical approach and the great risks involved, it was with the accumulation of such clinical successes and failures that the understanding of Parkinson’s disease was gradually enriched and more effective therapeutic targets and surgical methods were gradually improved and perfected. Horsley reported the use of partial sensory-motor cortex resection for Parkinson’s disease as early as 1909, after which patients had a significant reduction in limb tremor with only moderate functional impairment. It was not until the 1920s that the role of the extrapyramidal system in the regulation of movement was recognized. At that time, many neurologists opposed the treatment of Parkinson’s disease by blocking these nerve conduction pathways, and even Dandy, one of the founding fathers of neurosurgery, believed that destroying the nerve conduction pathways in the basal ganglia would be fatal. It was not until 1939 that Russell Meyers proved Dandy wrong by successfully treating Parkinson’s disease through craniotomy of the caudate nucleus of the basal ganglia in the middle cerebral hemisphere. With the increasingly profound understanding of the mechanism of Parkinson’s disease and the progress and leapfrog development of science and technology, not only the invention of stereotactic apparatus, but also with the application of ventriculography, CT, MRI and intraoperative micro-electrode recording and other technologies, the target positioning of directional surgery has become more and more accurate and effective, coupled with the “magic” effect on the treatment of Parkinson’s disease With the emergence of levodopa drugs with “miraculous” effects on Parkinson’s disease treatment, it can be said that the treatment of Parkinson’s disease has achieved great success. However, despite this, so far, the treatment of Parkinson’s disease is still treating the symptoms but not the root cause, still can not completely cure the patient to achieve the purpose of the root cause, the drugs still remain at the level of symptom reduction, improve the quality of life status. With the development and continuous improvement of surgical techniques, it is believed that one day the neuromodulation technology based on deep nucleus electrical stimulation will be able to completely overcome Parkinson’s disease.