Larry Clift, 74, of Chattanooga, lies on an operating table with a sheet of plastic draped across his forehead, nearly splitting the room in two. On one side, bright lights illuminate a dime-sized hole in the top of Clift’s skull, surrounded by a white ring of exposed bone and a small ooze of blood. If you look closely, you can see his brain….

For eight years, he has suffered from Parkinson’s disease, a disabling condition that has made his body stiff and weak. Relentless tremors have taken over his right arm, and doctors are certain they will spread to his left if they do not intervene. This operation, as surreal and terrifying as it may sound, is supposed to help. During four hours of surgery, a team of doctors place a tiny electrode deep within Clift’s skull, where electric shocks can stimulate the portion of his brain at the root of his disease. If the procedure works, his symptoms will fade with the flip of a switch. And maybe — just maybe — his tremors will never spread to his left arm at all. “Any time you have tremors,” Clift says, as doctors tinker inside his head, "and the shaking goes away, that’s a miracle.”

Clift was a recipient of deep brain stimulation surgery, which for two decades has been used as a last-resort treatment for patients with Parkinson’s disease, an incurable, degenerative condition that affects millions of people worldwide. But a new decadelong surgery study at Vanderbilt offers a glimmer of hope for younger Parkinson’s patients. Although still far from a cure, the surgery study provides some of the first evidence that any medical treatment can slow the progression of tremors, the signature symptom of the disease.

Read more at the Tennessean

Overview of attention for article published in Neurology, June 2018

Analysis of data from a clinical trial conducted at Vanderbilt suggests that deep brain stimulation (DBS) administered to patients with very early-stage Parkinson's disease slowed the progression of rest tremor. The study, published June 29 in Neurology, is significant because it is the first evidence of a treatment that may possibly delay the progression of one of the cardinal features of Parkinson's disease. However, the study's authors strongly caution that a larger-scale clinical trial across multiple investigational centers is needed to validate the finding.

"The finding around tremor is truly exceptional," said David Charles, MD, professor and vice-chair of Neurology and senior author. "What it suggests is that DBS applied in early stage Parkinson's disease may slow the progression of tremor. Why it is so remarkable is because there are no treatments for Parkinson's that have been proven to slow the progression of any element of the disease."

Mallory Hacker, PhD, research assistant professor of Neurology and the study's lead author, analyzed data collected from the trial that began in 2006, a trial that was controversial because it recruited patients with early-stage Parkinson's disease for DBS brain surgery. At that time, DBS was approved for only advanced-stage Parkinson's disease when symptoms were no longer adequately controlled by medication.

Read more at Science Daily

Results from exome-sequencing suggest lysosomal storage gene variants may predispose some people to PD, according to a new study presented at the AAN Annual Meeting. Brent Fogel, MD, PhD, FAAN, associate professor of neurology and human genetics at University of California, Los Angeles, discusses the possible clinical ramifications — the potential to target lysosomal pathways — with Neurology Today Editor-in-chief Steven P. Ringel, MD, FAAN, of the University of Colorado, and Associate Editor Robert G. Holloway, MD, FAAN, of the University of Rochester.

Read more and view video at Neurology Today

Deep brain stimulation, an established therapy that modifies the brain’s circuitry to treat symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders, is attracting fresh attention from medical-device makers who believe it is underused.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal

A consortium led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) researchers has received funding as it makes plans for a multicenter trial that could determine whether deep brain stimulation (DBS) slows the progression of Parkinson’s disease in early-stage patients.

Read more at news @ Vanderbilt

Six years after they met in an Internet chat room, Linda Jones and Steve Retterer woke up in the same Vanderbilt Adult Hospital room.

“I think it’s daylight,” Jones said, as the anesthesia began to wear off.

“I think you’re right,” Retterer answered, groggily.

The romance they unknowingly began in 2005 when they were newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and looking for online support had come full circle in 2011 when the pair underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery—a procedure that entails implanting electrodes in the brain to continuously stimulate a targeted area to control tremors.

In 2005 they were worried about their impending disability, burdened by the stress that would ultimately end their marriages and staring into computer screens looking for hope. The disease they shared had progressed to the point that medicine wasn’t providing relief from the constant twitching, rigidity and other movement problems that are the hallmark symptoms of Parkinson’s.

On the morning of their surgery, they held hands and looked forward to better days.

By the time Jones and Retterer were wheeled into an operating room on that day in 2011, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) doctors were doing about 100 DBS surgeries annually. Last year marked the 20th anniversary of the hospital’s first procedure and this year, VUMC will surpass its 1,000th surgery. The milestones occur as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expands DBS treatment to people with mid-stage Parkinson’s disease and VUMC investigators lead a nationwide clinical trial to determine if the therapy can slow the progression of Parkinson’s in early-stage cases.

Read more at Vanderbilt Medicine Magazine

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective treatment for many patients with advanced stage Parkinson’s disease (PD) when symptoms are not adequately controlled with medication. Vanderbilt University recently completed a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved pilot clinical trial of safety and tolerability of DBS in early-stage PD. Based on the results of the pilot, the FDA approved Vanderbilt University to conduct a large-scale, multicenter clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of DBS in very early stage Parkinson’s disease.

Read more from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

Parkinson’s disease researchers at Vanderbilt University have gotten the go-ahead from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expand a trial of a new treatment using deep brain stimulation.

Read more at The Tennessean