Tuesday, January 9th 2024, 5:55 am
A Tulsa hospital wants Parkinson’s patients to know there’s an option to reduce tremors that could get them off their medications.
Deep Brain Stimulation is a surgical treatment doctors at Ascension St. John say could decrease a patient’s tremors after just one operation.
Doctor Tyler Auschwitz is a surgeon at the hospital. He says DBS is like a “pacemaker for the brain."
He says the operation involves placing a device into the brain that then stimulates the parts of the brain to make it stop signaling muscles to tremor.
Doctor Auschwitz says patients often see a huge quality of life improvement after surgery.
“The biggest benefit, if you talk to patients, sometimes people are waking themselves up in the middle of the night, taking medicines every 2 to 4 hours, just to prevent or stop the tremoring. This, my goal I tell people, is an 80-percent reduction of meds. And we have a lot of patients that are 100-percent off medications after this procedure," Doctor Auschwitz said.
Doctor Auschwitz says a lot of patients are nervous about operations involving the brain. He suggests they speak with their neurologist or surgeon beforehand to address their concerns.
September 29th, 2024
October 12th, 2024
October 12th, 2024
October 12th, 2024
October 12th, 2024