Movement Disorders
The University of Chicago has leading experts in the medical and surgical treatment of movement disorders. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) for tremor, Parkinson's disease, and dystonia is offered to appropriate patients who have failed medical treatment. Dr. Richard Penn, the neurosurgeon who does these procedures, has a decade of experience in this field and is one of the first in the Midwest to have tested deep brain stimulation for tremor. He is assisted by a specialized team for intraoperative monitoring to record neuronal firing patterns. Nurses with extensive experience using electrical stimulation help after the patient leaves the hospital by adjusting the DBS stimulation.

Pain Disorders
One of the most successful operations for pain relief in cancer patients, percutaneous cordotomy, was developed over thirty years ago at the University of Chicago. This has influenced the approach to pain by emphasizing the least invasive procedures to help chronic pain. These include the balloon treatment of trigeminal neuralgia (developed at the University of Chicago) as well as electrical stimulation and implanted drug pumps using intrathecal morphine.

Stereotactic Radiosurgery
Radiosurgery, which uses focused radiation, represents a powerful tool to treat brain and spinal cord tumors, as well abnormal blood vessels, such as arterivenous malformations. The University of Chicago neurosurgeons have access to both the LINAC and Gamma knife systems; both have been successfully shown to treat a wide range of oncologic and vascular neurologic disease.

The neurosurgery physician contact who specializes in functional neurosurgery is Dr. Penn and he can be contacted at the following address:

Richard Penn, M.D.
The University of Chicago Hospital
Neurosurgery, MC 3026
5841 S. Maryland Ave
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel - (773) 702-2123
Fax - (773) 702-3518

For more information, please visit the University of Chicago Parkinson’s website at http://parkinsons.bsd.uchicago.edu.