Abbott GmbH
Wiesbaden (ots)
Unknown clinical pictures and years of searching for the right diagnosis – many of those affected are familiar with this consuming procedure. But it is rather unusual for exactly the same path of suffering to occur twice in a family. This is exactly what happened to father Dietmar G. and daughter Katrin E.: Fate struck them twice and persistently. Only after decades of hand tremors, which made normal everyday life almost impossible, was the diagnosis of essential tremor, also known as essential tremor, made in 2015. Thanks to a new type of treatment, deep brain stimulation, Abbott’s Infinity DBS system now ensures that father and daughter can live their lives freely and with a steady hand.
Restless
Dietmar G. noticed the first signs in his early 20s. While he had always achieved good results as a marksman, his marksmanship began to deteriorate rapidly and his hands began to tremble as soon as he raised the rifle. “When my first daughter was born, I wasn’t even able to hold my wife’s oxygen mask in the delivery room,” says the 62-year-old. Although the Saarlander visited various doctors, no one could tell him where the tremor came from, and attempts to alleviate it with medication also failed. “That was very frustrating and restricted me tremendously,” reports Dietmar G. “Among other things, I refrained from going to restaurants because the food itself and especially the cutlery has become a major challenge for me that I don’t face in public wanted.” Even daily activities such as brushing teeth, shaving or reading the newspaper became heavy work with the utmost concentration.
Further attempts to finally get an explanation and, above all, treatment for the constant trembling of the hands by examining various specialists failed, so that the trained fitter tried to come to terms with his fate, for better or for worse. It was only when Dietmar G. noticed when his second daughter started school that she also had similar symptoms, did he get another boost of motivation to finally find help and thus save his daughter from her own fate. At first without success.
Unimaginable suffering
Daughter Katrin E. was just six years old when her hands became more and more restless, which not only affected her writing in the years that followed. “Puberty in particular was terrible, because the hormonal changes also made the tremors worse,” says the 33-year-old. “Typical girl things like make-up or painting fingernails were unthinkable for me, at the same time teasing by my classmates was the order of the day.” Similar to her father, the doctors could not find a cause for Katrin’s condition for a long time. The administration of new, sometimes very strong medications ultimately only led to depression and brought no improvement. It was only alcohol that made the young woman forget for a few hours that she apparently had to make do with this burden her whole life. “Of course that was very dangerous, which fortunately I was aware of,” she says in retrospect. “My father and I left no stone unturned to find permanent help. After conventional medicine had labeled us as an unsolvable case, we also tried alternative healing methods – nothing helped.”
turning point
After Katrin E. decided to start a family of her own, she stopped all medication, married and had her first child. It wasn’t until she heard about the deep brain stimulation treatment from an acquaintance in 2013 and told her father about it that new hope sprang up in him. Dietmar G. informed himself extensively about the therapy procedure on the Internet, came across the SRH Kurpfalz Hospital Heidelberg and arranged a consultation appointment there.
Diagnosis after 30 years
In 2015, when Katrin was already 28 and Dietmar 55, Prof. Dr. medical Karl Kiening, deputy Clinic Director and Senior Physician of the Neurosurgical Clinic at the University Hospital Heidelberg, finally the diagnosis of essential tremor. It is a nervous system disorder associated with rhythmic tremors in one part of the body, most commonly the hands. After detailed investigations, it was clear that deep brain stimulation, or DBS for short, was a suitable treatment for the symptoms of both of them.
Technically, this form of therapy consists of three parts. First, from Abbott’s Infinity DBS neurostimulator, a small pacemaker-like pulse generator implanted under the skin near the collarbone. Among other things, it contains a battery and transmits stimulation pulses. These impulses are conducted under the skin via a thin cable, also called an electrode, to the brain, where they stimulate areas that are responsible for uncontrolled movements. The final component is a programmer. With this, patients can set stimulation strengths within a framework specified by doctors and read their values. “I had great respect for the operation, but also saw it as a real opportunity to significantly improve my quality of life and, above all, that of my daughter,” says Dietmar G. So he decided to have the operation and successfully completed it in August 2016 itself. “It was unbelievable, the very next day I had steady hands – I was so happy,” he recalls happily.
Since the procedure on her father was so successful, Katrin E. also decided on the form of treatment. “It’s incredible how my life has changed since then,” she says. “Whereas I used to find it difficult to give my children their bottles, today I can button their jackets without any problems or do household chores with a steady hand: separating eggs, sewing on a button or painting – unthinkable in the past, but now a matter of course for me. ”
Flexible treatment
In the past, an on-site appointment was necessary for the regular system check and doctor-patient communication, but with Abbott’s so-called Neurosphere Virtual Clinic, video consultations with the treating doctors are now possible via the Internet. Telemedicine is the name of this form of communication, which takes place independent of location and in real time. Dietmar G. and Katrin E. can
Appointments with her current treating specialist Dr. Andreas Becker, specialist in neurology and intensive care medicine as well as medical director of the SRH Kurpfalz Hospital in Heidelberg, have been able to do this from home since then and do not have to make the extra long journey to the clinic.
The expert describes the new technology as extremely important and forward-looking: “A major advantage of telemedicine is that the therapy adjustment can now be tested in everyday life and, if necessary, made at short notice,” says the expert. “This is a huge step forward, especially for patients with neurological complaints.” For Dietmar G. and Katrin E., too, the new technology brings extreme relief: “We no longer have to go to the hospital for every system check, which saves a lot of time. At the same time, the video conversation still makes us feel great cared for”, reports Dietmar G. in conclusion.
About Abbott
Abbott is a leading global healthcare company that helps people at all stages of life lead more energetic, healthier lives. More than 109,000 employees in 160 countries work on it every day. The portfolio includes life-changing technologies in the fields of diagnostics, medical devices, nutrition and branded generics.
Abbott has been represented in Germany for over 50 years with a wide range of healthcare products and services, including in the areas of diagnostics and medical devices. The company employs almost 4,000 people at eight locations in Germany. Among other things, Abbott has production facilities in Wiesbaden and Neustadt am Rübenberge. The European Distribution Center is also located at the main location in Wiesbaden.
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Press contact:
Abbott Media, Astrid Tinnemans, [email protected], 0173-954 23 75
Original content from: Abbott GmbH, transmitted by news aktuell
