Surgeons at Southmead Hospital in Bristol achieved a groundbreaking milestone by successfully implanting a device into the brain to alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. This procedure, believed to be the first of its kind globally, utilized a tiny deep brain stimulation device to counteract the abnormal firing patterns in the brain associated with Parkinson’s disease.
Tony Howells, the first patient to undergo this treatment as part of a trial in 2019, experienced significant improvement in his mobility. Before the surgery, he struggled to walk even short distances, but after the operation, he was able to walk much farther without difficulty. Mr. Howells expressed his amazement at the transformation and described the frustrating and debilitating nature of Parkinson’s symptoms. Unlike traditional surgery for Parkinson’s, which involves implanting a battery in the chest or stomach connected to wires leading to the brain, this new device is the smallest ever created and is implanted directly into the skull.