Dear friends
Has anyone tried ultrasond for releiving parkinson symptoms?
I heard in the news that this procedure is very effective.
Thanks
Rasa
Dear friends
Has anyone tried ultrasond for releiving parkinson symptoms?
I heard in the news that this procedure is very effective.
Thanks
Rasa
This is relatively new here in the United States. It helps with Tremor and dyskinesia. I would go for deep brain stimulation before I would do ultrasound because deep brain stimulation does not destroy any part of the brain and it is adjustable and reversible. I have seen some amazing results from DBS in my Parkinson's support group.
Unfortunately my mother is not a candidate for DBS, as her doctor advised.
The chair is not cheap but vibtation therapy might be a good non-pharmacological alternative:
Short-term effects of vibration therapy on motor impairments in Parkinson's disease.
Do not confuse diagnostic ultrasound, which does no damage to human tissues and can be used safely to image a fetus inside the womb, with therapeutic ultrasound, which focuses high-energy ultrasonic waves on a point inside the patient's body, with the aim of damaging or destroying human tissue (for therapeutic purposes). I would talk to a neurosurgeon to compare the potential benefits and risks of ultrasound versus other available procedures and therapies.
I am a participant in the trial for focused ultrasound (FUS) for PD dyskinesias. Another trial is underway for PD tremor. For dyskinesia the procedure is pallidotomy, for tremor the procedure is thallidotomy. Both are available only as part of research studies, at least in the US. I believe the PD tremor treatment is available commercially in Europe and Israel. I had the procedure last April. For the research they are only doing it unilaterally. I was #5 out of maybe 14 so far. I had moderate, short term success, but I am a bit of an outlier. I did not see as much relief as most of the others, nor was I able to reduce my meds. That said, I only take 300-350mg of carbidopa/levodopa (C/L) daily where most of the other participants were taking much higher doses, typically over 1000mg daily.
FUS was approved by the FDA last summer to treat Essential Tremor. Go to fusfoundation.org/ for more info. Watch the TEDx talk. The site has links to on-going research.
I had focused ultra sound in Switzerland in August of 2013. At that time I had tremors and
other symptoms only on my right side. The FUS completely eliminated the tremors but did
nothing for my other problems i.e. stiffness, eye issues etc. The tremors have now
moved into my left side and are progressively getting worse. overall, I was happy with the first FUS treatment, although it was expensive. It is now being offered at about a dozen sites and I am currently communicating with some of them regarding protocol and cost.
Sorry for the delay. I had it done in Switzerland 2 and a half years ago. It worked wonderfully but only on my right side. I believe you can find it on your computer under InSightec. Let me know if you can't find it. You can also look under focused ultrasound for parkinson's. Good luck.