Deep brain stimulation

Overview

Deep brain stimulation is a brain (neurological) treatment in which mild electrical signals stimulate certain areas of your brain. The signals reorganize your brain's electrical impulses, causing improved symptoms in many conditions affecting your brain. You may have deep brain stimulation on one or both sides of your brain, depending on your condition.

Why choose Mayo Clinic for deep brain stimulation

• Experience. Neurosurgeons first used deep brain stimulation in the United States in 1997 at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Mayo Clinic specialists have successfully used deep brain stimulation to treat hundreds of people who have essential tremor, Parkinson's disease and dystonia. Recently, doctors have used deep brain stimulation to treat people who have obsessive-compulsive disorder, cluster headaches, Tourette syndrome, epilepsy and chronic pain that hasn't responded to other treatments.
• Research. Mayo Clinic doctors are currently researching use of deep brain stimulation as a treatment for major depression and other conditions.
• Advanced surgical technology. Specialists at Mayo Clinic use computer-assisted brain surgery, intraoperative MRI and awake brain surgery during deep brain stimulation. Mayo Clinic neurosurgeons in the Neural Engineering Laboratory at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota collaborate with engineers to create or adjust devices used to treat conditions affecting your brain.
• Team approach. Mayo Clinic doctors with training in brain conditions (neurologists), brain surgeons (neurosurgeons), doctors with training in mental conditions (psychiatrists), pain specialists, specialized programming nurses and other specialists use an integrated team approach to treat people who have deep brain stimulation.

Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., is ranked among the Best Hospitals for neurology and neurosurgery by U.S. News & World Report. Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., are ranked high performing for neurology and neurosurgery by U.S. News & World Report. Mayo Clinic also ranks among the Best Children's Hospitals for neurology and neurosurgery.

Read more about deep brain stimulation at MayoClinic.com.

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