![]() ![]() Our ability to do this with DBS is really a revolutionary idea to help treat brain disorders. Gwinn says, “The use and success of DBS, particularly with essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease, has really helped us understand the brain and given us the capability to interact with individual circuits within the brain, and change the function of those circuits. One of the benefits of studies in brain mapping and DBS includes a newfound ability to explore and manipulate different regions and parts of the brain.ĭr. Within these key sections, there is a left and right hemisphere, gray matter, white matter, connecting fibers, and those 100 billion neurons. Put simply, the brain is composed of three main parts- the cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem. ![]() Because the FDA feels there is such a small population with these other, non-FDA approved conditions, it at times gives its stamp of approval via an institutional review board that allows an individual hospital to perform the DBS procedure under the HDE exemption.” The approved indications for DBS are Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor, but there is actually an area referred to as the humanitarian device exemption, or HDE, that helps facilitate the procedure in cases where the FDA won’t approve DBS because there is not yet a large well-controlled study to show its efficacies. “In the conversations about how DBS can or should be used, it’s important to distinguish between what is and is not an FDA-approved condition for DBS. ![]() Ryder Gwinn, MD, a neurosurgeon at the Swedish Neuroscience Institute, explains that DBS was initially designed to help those suffering from Essential Tremor and Parkinson’s disease, but has since been found to help people with other movement disorders such as Tourette’s syndrome, and dystonia. When activated, the impulse generator sends electrical pulses to the target areas in the brain, blocking the brain’s own impulses that cause tremors or other involuntary movement symptoms. These electrodes are then connected by small wires to a battery-powered device called an impulse generator, which is surgically implanted under the skin of the chest wall, just below the collarbone. Electrodes are placed within certain regions of the brain known to control movement, such as in the thalamus (to treat essential tremor and other forms of tremor) or in the globus pallidus (for Parkinson's disease and dystonia). Medical science has invested heavily in researching the brain, and one promising area that has garnered well-deserved attention is the increasing success of a medical procedure known as deep brain stimulation or DBS.ĭBS is a way to modulate parts of the brain that cause disabling conditions such as Parkinson's disease without damaging the brain. Although by weight our brain only accounts for about 2 percent of our total body weight, as the “command center” of our nervous system, the brain controls nearly all of the activities of the body, and typically contains up to 100 billion nerve cells (neurons). ![]() The human brain is often considered one of the last real medical mysteries or frontiers to be explored.
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