Tratamiento de la enfermedad de Parkinson en el Clínic

The diagnosis, follow-up and treatment of people with Parkinson’s disease is carried out in the Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Unit. This Unit has a 40-year history in the diagnosis, care and treatment of Parkinson’s disease and is a national reference unit (CSUR: centers, services and reference units of the Ministry of Health) in complex therapies such as deep brain stimulation for movement disorders. The unit is also a CSUR in ataxias and paraparesis, as well as in rare diseases that involve movement disorders (such as juvenile and young-onset Parkinson’s disease). In this latter category, the Unit is also a European reference center (ERN-RND: European Reference Networks in Rare Neurological Diseases, of the European Commission).

In the Unit, each year the following are evaluated:

• Around 600 new patients
• Around 4,000 follow-up visits

In addition to outpatient activity, inpatient diagnostic activity and initiation of complex therapies are carried out, such as deep brain stimulation, infusions of drugs like subcutaneous apomorphine and levodopa and intestinal levodopa gel, as well as botulinum toxin injections, guided either anatomically or using electromyographic recording or ultrasound.

The Parkinson’s Unit is made up of 6 neurologists and an advanced practice nurse with specific expertise in Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders. In addition, members of other units and services also participate, highlighting the multidisciplinary nature of the unit: neurosurgery, psychiatry, endoscopy, nuclear medicine and radiology (CDI), nutrition, pharmacology and diagnostic laboratory (CDB), as well as speech therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, clinical psychology and neuropsychology.

The Unit also has social work professionals, both in outpatient care and at the Day Hospital for Neurodegenerative Diseases (HDMND), where patients receive physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy and cognitive stimulation.