A tremor that lasted for many years, then disappeared within a few seconds inside the operating room… a medical scene that surprised social media users after an Egyptian neurosurgeon published videos of operations he performed on patients suffering from tremors associated with Parkinson’s disease.
The clips were published by Dr. Ali Salah, a consultant neurosurgeon at Suez Canal University, after the approval of the patients, including a Saudi patient named Ahmed Al-Zahrani, who had been suffering from a constant tremor in his hand for about 10 years.
But how do the tremors disappear so quickly?
The doctor explains that the process depends on inserting a thin probe through a small opening in the skull, directing it precisely to a specific area in the brain known as the nucleus of the thalamus, and then performing thermal cauterization of the focus responsible for the nerve signals that cause the tremor.
What is noteworthy is that the patient is not asleep during the operation, but rather undergoes local anesthesia and remains conscious, and the doctor talks to him and asks him to move his hands and feet, in order to ensure that the desired area is targeted without affecting the functions of movement or speech.
During the operation, the clip of which appeared on social media, the tremors in the patient’s hand stopped immediately, which made the scene receive widespread interaction.
Dr. Salah explained that reaching the target area depends on precise planning using magnetic resonance images, CT scans, and surgical navigation devices, allowing coordinates to be determined with an accuracy of up to fractions of a millimeter.
The clip did not pass by on social media, as followers from different countries shared and interacted with it, and some of them recalled personal experiences with similar operations.
Douglas wrote that he had undergone a similar successful procedure years earlier in the United States:
I underwent a similar medical intervention 8 years ago in Pennsylvania, USA. My tremor prevented me from holding a cup in my hand, and the operation completely changed my life.
As for Saeed, he referred to a similar case with the father of a friend of his, saying:
Years ago, I witnessed a similar operation for the father of one of my friends. He was 72 years old and suffered from Parkinson’s disease. The tremor completely disappeared after the operation.
From a different angle, Amr focused on the danger of this type of surgery, and said:
Precision is very required in the doctor’s work, because any minor defect may lead to permanent disability
Thermal cauterization is not the latest technology in treating tremors. There is a technology based on focused ultrasound guided by magnetic resonance imaging, through which the specific area in the brain can be targeted without the need for a surgical incision.