My husband is 78 and has had Parkinson for about 6 years. He is under control with the shaking symptoms BUT in the past 6-8 months in addition to his feet burning and numb-toes curling and turning beet red his legs have started having Charlie horses--most of the day and night. No relief sitting or standing up.
Our Parkinson doctor sent him to a spine specialist because he felt ALL those symptoms were NOT Parkinson related. The spine doctor had him see a vascular specialist--have a MRI and a Meylogram(sp?) and now one more nerve testing with another Neurologist for a last opinion before an operation to remove the tiny obstruction in his back to free up the flow of blood in the spinal column (sporolylolysis) to solve the problem.
My husband wants this operation to stop the pain in his legs and so he can sit down for more than 10 minutes at a time and walk and swim again for exercise.
My question is -- With Parkinson is there more danger (more than anyone else's) with taking the general anesthetic needed for this operation do him any/more harm because he does have Parkinson!!!!? Mental problems in particular?
In addition there is parkinson with the potential, small, of drug drug interactions. If there is a past history of confusion or hallucinatios this can also be a problem.
You must ask the surgeon how long an operation. If there is
compression at one level of the spine and the surgery is 1 to 3 hours
with 1 to 3 hours of anesthesia that's one thing. If it's a 6 or
more hour operation, despite every precaution there are likely to
be problems. The issue is your husband if he absolutely cannot live
with the pain then he needs the surgery.
Abe Lieberman
