RENZO FIGARI, MD: At UVA, we have a multi-disciplinary team to treat movement disorders. And that could include Parkinson's disease and other Parkinson-like diseases.
JEFF ELIAS, MD: Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that initially involves the dopamine areas of the brain. And it causes a loss of movement or a reduction amount of movement for the patients.
RENZO FIGARI: Most of the time we think of Parkinson's of patients having tremors. But in fact about a third of patients might not have any tremors at all. But we look at other things like the stiffness in their muscles, the slowing down of their movements and changes in their walking.ALEX DALRYMPLE, MD: People often describe difficulty with fine motor tasks or feeling like they're walking through chest deep water. Other symptoms of Parkinson's include; a special type of muscle stiffness called cogwheel rigidity and balance problems or postural instability, in addition to the tremors that a lot of people think of. For Parkinson's disease, there are a lot of different medication options that fall under a number of different families. Probably the most common treatment option we use is a combination pill called carbidopa-levodopa. Aside from medications, though, we also offer a few different surgical options for the treatment of Parkinson's disease here at UVA. Including deep brain stimulation, which can be pretty effective in helping to reduce the tremor, the slowness and the stiffness that we see in the disease. Movement disorders is a lot more than just Parkinson's disease. We see all sorts of disorders of a part of the brain called the basal ganglia, as well as cerebellum and spinal cord.
JEFF ELIAS: I think probably the most common movement disorder that affects people is essential tremor. We have a very active program treating essential tremor, or patients with essential tremor. Most people are familiar with Parkinson's disease, but there are some other movement disorders like dystonia and Tourette's.
ALEX DALRYMPLE: So one big thing that sets UVA apart from other institutions in the treatment of movement disorders, I think is the expertise that each of the neurologists we have on our team can bring to the table. Our neurosurgeon, Dr. Jeff Elias, who does a lot of our deep brain stimulation surgeries is really pretty special. He's an excellent neurosurgeon.He's a great colleague. He's the person who I would want doing the surgery if it were my family members involved.
JEFF ELIAS: I think one thing that UVA really excels at is the multidisciplinary approach to the disease. We have a team of clinicians that evaluates the patient and is capable of addressing the problem from different perspectives. And I think that that multidisciplinary approach is really the ideal way to deal with a complicated neurological problem.
RENZO FIGARI: We have the neurologist working together with neurosurgery in some cases, working together with the therapist, nutritionist, genetic specialist. Everything is gonna be focused to help the patient have a better quality of life.
JEFF ELIAS: There are a lot of problems we deal with in medicine that we can't necessarily cure. And I view my job or our role here at UVA to really help people manage their disease and really to do anything that I can do to increase their quality of life and ease the burden of suffering.
ALEX DALRYMPLE: So my mentor told me this one question years ago, that I still try to keep in my mind before I see each patient. Every time, whenever I'm about to walk in the room, I pause for a minute, ask myself, what can I do to help this patient today?
RENZO FIGARI: I think that a few people can really say they love coming to work every day and it’s not only working with my colleagues, which are my friends, but also working together with the patients and their families.