Before and after of a woman with Huntington’s disease operated at Sant Pau

The Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, in Barcelona, has performed a deep brain stimulation surgery on a patient suffering from the Huntington’s disease, a non-curable neurodegenerative disease that includes involuntary movements of the whole body, cognitive disturbances y psychiatric disturbances. This pioneering intervention is the first to be performed by Sant Pau. In the whole world, there have hardly been any about a hundred of them.

The video that accompanies this news item shows the before and after of the operation, which served the patient to alleviate the aggressive involuntary movements caused by Huntington’s disease. EL PERIÓDICO entered the operating room during the surgery and talked weeks later with the specialists of the Hospital de Sant Pau to follow up the case. In a multimedia report, the newspaper narrates the ins and outs of the intervention and explains the evolution of the patient. [pulsa aquí para leer el reportaje multimedia]

The surgery to which the Huntington’s patient underwent consists of placing a brain stimulation electrodes deep in very specific regions of the brain. The purpose is to regulate or neuromodulate neuronal activity altered that gives rise to the motor symptoms. “It is not a recommended therapy, but works alone. in a few cases. This is a very selected patient,” the neurosurgeons note.