In the Operating Room

After radiology, you will enter the operating room and the head frame is fixed to the table. You will be in a reclined and comfortable position for the duration of the surgery. A small amount of hair - behind the hairline - will be shaved. Once a local anesthetic is applied to the scalp, a small 2-inch incision will be made and a dime-size hole drilled in the skull under the anesthetized scalp. You will be fully awake during this stage and many patients compare the experience to being at the dentist, and rarely experience any pain. We next use microelectrode recording (MER) to identify the target area for DBS.