The journal Movement Disorders is preparing to publish a paper that measured the types of complications patients experienced within 30 days of deep brain stimulation surgery (DBS). Researchers looked back at the medical records of 1,183 German patients who had undergone DBS. They learned that:
- 0.4 percent of patients died.
- 2.2 percent of patients had bleeding in their brain.
- Less than 1 percent of patients confronted pneumonia, and skin infections.
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- By Elena Tuero
In 1997 the FDA approved deep brain stimulation to treat Parkinson's Disease. In the surgery, doctors implant a small, battery operated medical device called a neurostimulator into the brain. Once implanted, it deliverers electrical stimulation to areas that control movement.
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Kyowa Pharmaceutical, Inc., announced it submitted a new drug application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Istradefylline, its investigational Parkinson's disease drug. Istradefylline is a novel anti-Parkinson's drug that has a specific antagonistic action on the Adenosine A2A receptor in the brain and is expected to benefit Parkinson's disease patients.
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If you are living with late stage Parkinson's, you know there aren't a lot of great treatments out there for it. Levodopa and a handful of other traditional medications may still help, but not like they used to. So imagine our surprise today when we heard about two options. One could be available soon, and we'll discuss it today. The second is still under investigation, and a few years away. We will get more information about it, so please be patient with us while we gather the facts, and post them tomorrow.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced that manufacturers of pergolide drug products,
Permax and its generic variations, will voluntarily remove these drugs from the market because of the risk of
serious damage to patients' heart valves. Pergolide is a dopamine agonist used to manage Parkinson's disease.
Most people with Parkinson's using dopamine agonists are using newer products such as Mirapex and Requip.
Many people with Parkinson's are also anxiously anticipating the arrival of the
dopamine agonist patch.
"The patch" will administer a continuous dose of a new generation dopamine agonist.
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In February 2006, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (an institute within the National Institutes of Health) reported results from a futility study that it conducted investigating the substance creatine. Investigators started with the theory that creatine would not help people with Parkinson's disease.
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It is discouraging to people living with Parkinson's when they can no longer speak loud enough to carry on a quality conversation. For decades, speech language pathologists and therapists compounded the discouragement by providing therapy that did not have an effect for much longer then a few minutes or hours. The lucky people got their voice volume back for a few days. So, naturally, most physicians would not send patients to voice therapy. Even now, the majority of people living with Parkinson's disease, do not pursue voice therapy.
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LDL (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) is the "bad cholesterol" that can gum up people's arteries. Naturally, having less of it circulating around your blood stream is thought to be ideal for your health. However, one negative side-effect of low LDL may possibly be an increased risk of Parkinson's disease. However, we do not know which may come first, low LDL or Parkinson's. It could be that people developing Parkinson's deplete the LDL in their bodies.
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Last May, a study published in the journal Neurology looked back at the medical records of 530 veterans with Parkinson's disease. Because they were treated at the VA, they were able to see what medications their physicians prescribed, and the specialty of the physician that prescribed them. What they learned is important for you to know.
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