Most patients have shown increased sensitivity to PD drugs beginning 1 to 3 months after the fetal cell transplant. As a result, significant reductions in levodopa dose are common. As months pass, patients report smoother and more predictable control of their movement. Techniques for transplanting fetal cells into the human brain are still experimental and can only be performed at selected research centers with experience in this area. There are also risks associated with any surgical procedure.
Surgery represents only one of many therapy options.
No other major medical illness Motivated to perform extensive preoperative and postoperative studies Normal magnetic resonance imaging scan Adapted from Freed et al. Involving the surgical placement of a lesion or scar in a certain portion of the brain, pallidotomy was first performed in the 1940s and 1950s. With the introduction of PD medications like Sinemet, pallidotomy became less widely used. Interest in pallidotomy has recently increased because of new animal studies that have resulted in better understanding of the pathways involved in PD and have led to new, improved surgical techniques. Several centers in the United States and abroad are now performing pallidotomy.