The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) is one of a handful of sites nationwide testing a new device for patients with Parkinson's disease and essential tremor, a neurological movement disorder.
The study will help determine whether a new Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) technology is effective in providing relief for patients who are unable to adequately control symptoms of their disease with medication.
URMC is one of 12 locations nationwide participating in the study of the new Libra DBS system. The trial is being funded by the device's manufacturer, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems (ANS), a division of St. Jude Medical Company.
The DBS system is a surgically implanted medical device that delivers an electrical stimulation to areas of the brain that control movement. The system consists of a neurostimulator – a pocket-watch-sized device that is implanted under the collarbone – and wires, or leads, which run from the neurostimulator under the skin and into the brain through an opening in the skull. The leads are surgically guided to one of two areas in the brain depending upon the patient and the condition being treated. The system then functions in a manner similar to a heart pacemaker by delivering mild electrical pulses that disrupt or block the irregular nerve signals responsible for symptoms of Parkinson's disease and essential tremor.
“In these diseases, we think that there is abnormal firing in circuits in the brain important for controlling movement,” said neurosurgeon Jason Schwalb, M.D., co-investigator of the study. “When these circuits do not work or abnormal signals resonate within these circuits, people can develop tremor, rigidity, difficulty initiating movement and increased tone in opposing muscles that can even be painful. It is believed that DBS disrupts abnormal firing patterns present in movement disorders at discrete points in this circuitry and replaces them with more regular patterns of firing.”