Neurosurgeons from Wrocław implanted the patient with a brain stimulator, which alleviates the symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder. Three months after the procedure, psychiatrists estimate that the changes in the patient’s brain decreased by up to half.
As the head of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University Teaching Hospital in Wrocław explains, Dr. Paweł Tabakow, the brain surgery itself is not complicated. It is much more difficult to prepare a plan and the so-called operation maps to help the electrode go to the right place. During the procedure, the doctors connected the electrode with a special pacemaker placed under the skin, under the clavicle of the patient.
Targeted neuromodulation therapy related to mental illness is the first such treatment in Lower Silesia. Previously, more than 20 similar ones were made, but they were related to Parkinson’s disease.
After this first successful therapy, the project will continue. – We are looking for patients with obsessive compulsive disorders who have been receiving treatment for at least 5 years with moderate success. This proves that they cannot be helped pharmacologically. You can visit our clinic or any psychiatrist in Lower Silesia, who will assess whether a given patient can participate in such therapy – says prof. Joanna Rymaszewska, head of the Department and Clinic of Psychiatry at the Medical University in Wrocław.
The costs of the operation are tens of thousands of zlotys. The patient will have to replace the battery in the starter in a few years.
In 2012, neurosurgeons from the USK performed the world’s first transplant of glial cells from the patient’s nose to a torn spinal cord. The injured patient was unable to walk, and now he is cycling and walking.