Surgery of Parkinson's disease

Treating motor symptoms with surgery was once a common practice, but since the discovery of levodopa, the number of operations declined. Studies in the past few decades have led to great improvements in surgical techniques, so that surgery is again being used in people with advanced PD for whom drug therapy is no longer sufficient. Surgery for PD can be divided in two main groups: lesional and deep brain stimulation (DBS). Target areas for DBS or lesions include the thalamus, the globus pallidus or the subthalamic nucleus. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is the most commonly used surgical treatment. It involves the implantation of a medical device called a brain pacemaker, which sends electrical impulses to specific parts of the brain. DBS is recommended for people who have PD who suffer from motor fluctuations and tremor inadequately controlled by medication, or to those who are intolerant to medication, as long as they do not have severe neuropsychiatric problems. Other, less common, surgical therapies involve intentional formation of lesions to suppress overactivity of specific subcortical areas. For example, pallidotomy involves surgical destruction of the globus pallidus to control dyskinesia.