A brain surgeon drilled pair nickel...

A brain surgeon drilled pair nickel-sized holes in Bill Bettis' head and implanted electrode inside his brain.

Bettis has Parkinson's disease. The electrode are emitting vibrations of electric current that have markedly improved his symptoms.

Bettis is walking long better, his speech and dexterity have improved and he's plane shaved five strokes from his golf score since undergoing the surgery at Rush University Medical Center

It's called mysterious brain stimulation, or DBS. A European application of mind published in today's New England Journal of Medicine place that DBS works significantly better than conventional mix with drugs treatments.

Researchers compared 78 randomly choiceed patients who received DBS and put drugs into therapy to 78 patients who received mix with drugss alone.

DB patients had a 41 percent improvement in motor skills and a 25 percent improvement in quality of life. There were no improvements in patients who received remedys alone.

Parkinson's symptoms initially can be controll with put drugs intos But the drugs can cause side drifts such as involuntary movements.

DB continuously delivers tiny electric fruit of leguminous plantss to the part of the brain involved in planning and executing changes The pulses appear to disrupt abnormal electrical activity.

The investigation had limitations, said Dr. Michael s Okun of National Parkinson Foundation. Participants were younger than in the greatest degree Parkinson's patients, and followed for sole six months.

DB is intended for patients who have advanced disease, are failing unsalable article therapy, have no dementia and can withstand brain surgery It richnesss $50,000 to $60,000.

a certain number of RISKS

"It's a terrific therapy, however it only applies to a choice subset of patients," Okun said. "We don't want to give false hopes"

The feed and Drug Administration approved DB for Parkinson's disease in 2002 and it's being studied for epilepsy, depression, vascular headaches and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Rush brain surgeon Dr Roy A.E. Bakay has done nearly 400 DB surgeries, for the most part for Parkinson's. He said risks include poor injury healing, infections and potentially fatal brain hemorrhages. Nevertheless, DB "is becoming the treatment of choice" for patients who are failing remedy therapy, he said.

jritter@suntimes.com

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