Deep Brain Stimulation for Essential Tremor
Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region

Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complex, progressive and degenerative neurological disorder that causes loss of control over body movements. As Parkinson’s progresses, it becomes increasingly disabling, making routine daily activities like bathing, dressing or eating without assistance from others difficult or impossible. There is currently no cure for PD. Medications can be used to improve motor function; they may, however, lose their effectiveness over time and cause side effects.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) Therapy safely and effectively manages some of the most disabling motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The symptoms that DBS Therapy has been shown to reduce include:

Rigidity – stiffness or inflexibility of the limbs or joints
Bradykinesia/akinesia – slowness of movement/absence of movement
Tremor – involuntary, rhythmic shaking of a limb, the head, or the entire body

In a New England Journal of Medicine study, Activa DBS was shown to increase periods of good mobility (no symptoms or involuntary excessive movements) from 27% to 74% of a patient's waking day.

DBS offers adjustable, reversible, non-drug treatment for motor symptoms of movement disorders that offers patients greater freedom to live and work. It can have a profound effect on the lives of people with PD by improving their motor control. It can also improve the lives of their caregivers by reducing the burden posed by their loved one’s disorder and resulting disability.