Deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatment could be used to help restore mobility in people suffering from Parkinson’s disease, physicians said yesterday.
A 59-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃) told a press conference that she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease about 10 years ago and that she frequently suffered from limb stiffness and has often been hospitalized.
Huang said the therapeutic effects from medication has been very limited, but after receiving DBS treatment in addition to medication, she is now able to move freely and was even able to visit her daughter and new born grandchild in England last month.
Yunlin County’s China Medical University Beigang Hospital superintendent neurosurgeon Lin Hsin-jung (林欣榮) said Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disorder most commonly occurring in people aged 65 to 80 and that medication is the main treatment.
“Tremors, slow movement and walking in small steps are common early signs of Parkinson’s and symptoms can progress to stiffness of the limbs, having trouble turning around, frequent falls and even the inability to speak,” Lin said.
Taichung Veterans General Hospital neurosurgeon Lee Hsu-Tung (李旭東) said “some medications can induce drowsiness or dyskinesia — involuntary muscle movements — and severe dyskinesia can affect patients’ mobility.”
“While the effects of medication can be limited, DBS treatment — the placement of electrodes in a specific area of the brain [usually the subthalamic nucleus] and electrical stimulation targeted on areas of the brain that control movement, can help patients move their muscles normally,” he said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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