Sunderland Parkinson’s patient feels ‘fine’ with new device

A person fit with a leading, computer-controlled brain implants to deal with his Parkinson’s disease says that it works so well that he is sometimes able to forget that he has a position.

12 months ago, a small computer inserted into the wall of Kevin Hill’s chest wall is attached to the wires running in the brain that can send electrical signals and an update means that it can now read its brain activity.

65 -year -old Sundarland said that it had been so successful that he feels that he has “recovered”.

Surgeons in Newcastle hopes that deep brain stimulation will have a “heavy impact” on the quality of life of patients with deep brain stimulation.

Mr. Hill said: “I forget for Parkinson’s days and days and days.”

He was trembling in his thumb, trembling in his thumb in the 40s, and suffering from bad dreams and insomnia.

He was banned from going to the kitchen by his wife because his hand was so shaken that he dropped or dropped hot drinks and even cut the end of his finger.

In 2017, he visited his GP and found out Parkinson’s.

They were told that there were drugs, but there was no cure, but there was a new treatment – deep brain stimulation (DBS) – and tests proved that he was suitable for surgery.

This included a transplant that goes deep for the size of a rash of rice in an area in the brain.

The computer in his chest is attached to two thin wires that threaded the back of his neck.

This carries the electrical messages that can manage the symptoms of their Parkinson’s.

Mr. Hill described the computer as the size and shape of “a jafa cake”.

When it was switched on after surgery, he said that the effect was dramatic.

After nights sleepless, and unable to manage uncontrollable shaking of your hands and legs, his shocks “immediately stopped”.

Mr. Hill said that he is still staring with hand and “cannot believe it”. His wife burst into tears.

He knew that life once, which means that he was able to go into the pub and see his friends again.

He bought a bike and even allowed to return to the kitchen.

For the last year, he had to go to the hospital regularly to re -program his system to better control his symptoms.

Now, a new updated version called “adaptive deep brain stimulation” is designed to re -program the system in real time.

It can also read the signs of a patient’s brain which doctors say that symptoms should have better control.

Akbar Hussain, a neurosurgeon of Newcastle Hospitals, is one of the first doctors in the world to offer newly adapted Breansens treatment developed by Medtronic.

He said: “The amazing thing about the adaptive version is that the electrical impulses provided by the device to the brain are automatically controlled and adjusted according to the recording of a individual patient from the device in their chest.

“The biological signs generated within the person are sufficient to change the treatment given by the self transplant.

“These changes can occur up to minutes or hours, which means that treatment is actually responsible for each person’s accurate requirements.

“It is exciting. Hopefully it will have a huge impact and will be very important for the quality of life of patients.”

Dr. Becky Jones, Charity Parkinson from the UK, said: “Current DBS can change life and if it can be responsible for a person’s needs, then promises to be even more effective.

“While the evidence is still being collected to assess adaptive DBS vs. standard types, it is very good for people with Parkinson’s to see the movement towards becoming a new, more effective treatment.”

About 153,000 people in the UK are living with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological disorder affecting the brain and nervous system.

Number is expected to increase due to population growth and aging.