Pacemaker surgery: A new hope for Parkinson’s disease patients

  Recently, the neurosurgery department of Huangdao Hospital successfully carried out the first case of “deep brain electrode stimulation for Parkinson’s disease”, which is also called “brain pacemaker surgery”.  The patient was a 60-year-old male who had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for more than 10 years. After 3 hours of effort, the surgery was successful. The operation was performed by Professor Sun Peng, the director of neurosurgery, with the collaboration of neurology, neuroimaging, operating room and anesthesia. The surgery was performed with the patient awake, and the intraoperative test results were excellent, with the patient’s tremor and rigidity symptoms significantly relieved. The patient is now clear and happy, and is recovering smoothly with normal postoperative cranial CT and all examinations.  Parkinson’s disease, also known as tremor palsy, is a common chronic degenerative movement disorder of the central nervous system in middle-aged and elderly people, mainly manifesting as bradykinesia, resting tremor, myotonia, postural instability and other non-motor symptoms, and is currently the third most serious threat to the health of the elderly population after stroke and dementia. The prevalence rate in China is about 1% for people over 60 years old and 5% for people over 65 years old, with about 100,000 new cases each year and close to 2 million patients in China. As the aging population continues to increase, it is expected that in 2030 China will have nearly 5 million patients and will become the country with the most Parkinson’s disease patients.  According to Director Sun Peng, deep brain electrical stimulation, commonly known as brain pacemaker surgery, or “DBS” for short, is to use brain stereotactic surgery to implant electrodes at a special location in the patient’s brain, and send electrical signals to the brain through an electrical stimulator placed under the collarbone, with the help of an external remote control, to continuously stimulate specific nuclei in the brain. With the help of an external remote control, electrical pulses are continuously stimulated to specific nuclei in the brain. This procedure can be used to reduce and control the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease by awakening the brain.  This procedure has good long-term results and is especially suitable for patients who have high side effects and cannot tolerate medication, or who experience uncontrollable fluctuations in symptoms and dyskinesia during medication, and most patients can reduce the amount of medication and improve adverse drug reactions. It has non-destructive, reversible and modifiable advantages, and has become an effective means of treatment for Parkinson’s disease recognized worldwide, bringing new hope and gospel to countless Parkinson’s disease patients.