Sending the right signals: Neurostimulator ends 15 years of tremors

Mathis Winkler

Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2002 | 9:46 a.m.

An expert on terrorism, Joseph Albini made himself scarce when asked to comment on the Sept. 11 attacks.

He did so not because he had nothing to say on the subject -- a paper he wrote about the terrorists in Afghanistan was recently published in an academic journal.

What stopped him was a tremor, which caused his hands and arms to shake and embarrassed him when he would spill a drink or drop food from his plate.

"I was wasting a lot of coffee," the 71-year-old said.

Albini's problems have all but gone away since he underwent a new procedure, called "deep brain stimulation," at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center last October.

During the operation, a coiled wire was implanted in Albini's brain and connected to a device similar to a pacemaker that was implanted in his chest.

The so-called neurostimulator now sends mild, electrical stimulation to Albini's brain and blocks signals that cause the tremors.

"We can program the impulses to block tremors," Dr. Benjamin Venger, a neurosurgeon and Albini's doctor, said.

The battery-operated device can be turned off by placing a magnet over it, which Venger did during a demonstration Monday.

Without the electrical impulses, Albini was unable to drink from a cup of water, spilling the liquid as his shaky hand tried to guide the cup to his mouth.

Once Venger turned the electricity on again, Albini's hands stopped trembling and he was able to drink without a problem.

Afterward Albini said the demonstration brought back awful memories of 15 years of living with tremors.

"Everything you do, you calculate how you cover (the tremors) up," he said.

Albini recommended the procedure, even though he had to stay awake during the operation to allow Venger to test whether he was placing the wire in the right position.

The only thing that troubled him about that was the fact that he couldn't move his head for about four hours during the operation, he said.

Several hundred people in the Las Vegas area who suffer similar problems could benefit from the device, which costs about $5,000 to $10,000, Venger said.

"I'm here to tell (people with tremors), 'Do it,' " Albini said. "The change that I have seen is tremendous."