Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences gives new life to Parkinson’s patients

 Tirupati: Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) has reached another milestone of completing 25 deep brain simulation (DBS) procedures successfully to the patients suffering with Parkinson’s disease.

SVIMS Neurosciences launched a holistic approach for movement disorders and DBS in July 2017, said the Director Dr TS Ravikumar. Disclosing the details to the media in Tirupati on Friday, the Director said that the SVIMS has started very high-end DBS programme soon after he took charge. 

Institute of Neurosciences at SVIMS not only covers 10 different diseases but put together all the specialists under one roof, who can analyse all aspects of a patient. DBS is a neurosurgical procedure involving the implantation of a medical device called a neuro stimulator or brain pacemaker.

It sends electrical impulses through implanted electrodes to specific target in the brain for the treatment of movement and neuropsychiatric disorders. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterised by slowness, stiffness, tremor and postural instability affecting all aspects of daily living and increased dependency and its prevalence is 1 in 1,000 population. 

DBS is a procedure with level-1 evidence and gives second life to the patients and it was estimated that about four lakh Parkinson’s patients are awaiting this procedure in the country. “It was a key milestone as the Institute of Neurosciences has completed 25 DBS procedures in a rapid time frame.

The only limitation was financial constraint as not many patients are not getting funding and we cannot charge the patients as most of them are poor. Hence, we were looking for a mechanism for this funding which is not financially productive programme, but we should continue it for community cause,” maintained the Director.  

The process may cost around Rs 7-10 lakh and in corporate hospitals it may be even more. Dr Ravikumar emphasised that local people should benefit from globally accepted high end programmes. Lives of 25 people have been transformed with the successful completion of surgeries.

He said that the incidence is higher in older people compared to young people. Global studies indicate that the burden for movement disorders and Parkinson’s has gone up by 36 per cent from 1990 to 2017 and 17 per cent of global deaths were related to neurological diseases. 

Dr BCM Prasad has stated that patients with Parkinson’s disease will become bed ridden and through DBS they can become normal. Except in SVIMS, nowhere in AP this type of surgeries were being performed, and in all the 25 cases the follow-up progress was good.

The disease can be caused due to ageing or genetic disorders and with tablets, counselling and simulation patients can get relief and attend normal activities but clarified that it was only an intervention not a total cure.

Dr B Vengamma explained that continuous medication brings in more side effects and this can be reduced after DBS. Dr VV Ramesh Chandra and Dr T Naveen also spoke. On this occasion, some of the patients, who underwent DBS surgeries were present and expressed their feelings. 

Devi (35), who is working as a tailor, from Madanapalle said that now she opened a tailoring shop and performing all stitching activities. A farmer Ramachandra Reddy, who could not even stand before the surgery, was now able to do cultivation on his own.