A new device “advances” in therapy to help Parkinson’s patients

A new device “advances” the deep brain stimulation technique used for Parkinson’s patients by personalizing it according to the needs of each patient.

This device consists of a stimulator similar to a pacemaker, which is placed under the skin, below the collarbone, from where it produces small electrical signals that “travel” along very fine cables placed by surgery at a specific point in the brain.

The recently launched device has been implanted in Spain in five patients, four of them at the Clínico San Carlos in Madrid, and one at the Bellvitge in Barcelona, ​​as explained today by several experts in a press conference.

The neurosurgeon at the Clínico Juan Antonio Barcia has explained that the brain of a Parkinson’s patient has an area that works worse, which makes another area “work too well, excessively.”

What deep brain stimulation allows, through electrodes, is to reach a balance between the two parts.

The new device, according to the neurologist at the University Hospital of Wurzburg (Germany), Jens Volkmann, allows the stimulation to be directed more accurately, sending very precise electrical signals through the electrodes without having to move them.

“With this device, the electrode advances a little more in the possibility of modulating the response and reduces the side effects,” said Barcia, who added that with the current electrodes the electrical field that is generated is always the same.

On the other hand, with the new device (from Boston Scientific), the electrical field “is more complex,” according to Barcia, so it can be adapted to the needs of patients who do not respond to pharmacological treatment.

The event was also attended by neurosurgeon Gerard Plans, neurologist Sergi Jaume, both from the Bellvitge hospital, and neurologist Fernando Alonso, from the Madrid Clínico, who endorsed the advance that this new device represents. EFE

Source: La Vanguardia