Ablative brain surgery

With the use of experimental ablation, Flourens claimed to find the area of the brain that controlled heart rate and breathing.

For example, by ablating specific brain regions and observing differences in animals subjected to behavioral tests, the functions of all the removed areas may be inferred.

Such research is considered unethical on humans due to the irreversible effects and damages caused by the lesion and by the ablation of brain tissues.

[citation needed] Two other rapidly evolving or potential surgical approaches to Parkinson's disease are deep brain stimulation (DBS) and restorative therapies.

Generally, deep brain stimulation surgery is considered preferable to ablation because it has the same effect and is adjustable and reversible.

DBS may be employed in the management of medication-refractory tremor or treatment-related motor complications, and may benefit between 4.5% and 20% of patients at some stage of their disease course.

[2] The aim of these guidelines is to assist neurologists and general physicians identify patients who may benefit from referral to a DBS team.

Early referral for consideration of DBS is recommended as soon as optimised medical therapy fails to offer satisfactory motor control.

[6] The thalamus is another potential target for treating a tremor; in some countries, so is the subthalamic nucleus, although not in the United States due to its severe side effects.

In the case of such circumstances, a permanent lesion in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is created as it is a more favourable surgical procedure.

More so, patients who gain relief from stimulation devoid of any side effects and need a pacemaker change may have a lesion performed on them in the same position.

[19] The official Xinhua News Agency has since reported that China's Ministry of Health has banned the procedure for schizophrenia and severely restricted the practice for other conditions.

[21] Experimental ablation involves the drilling of holes in the skull of an animal and inserting an electrode or a small tube called a cannula into the brain using a stereotactic apparatus.

By comparing the prior behavior of the animal to after the lesion, the researcher can predict the function of damaged brain segment.

The Texas Children's Hospital is one of the first to use this MRI guided method to destroy and treat brain lesions effectively and precisely.

[1] The use of ablative brain surgery on the nucleus accumbens is the wrong method to treat addictions according to Dr. Charles O'Brien.