Brain stimulation surgery in Louisville helps patients with movement disorders like Parkinson's

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Brain surgery performed by a Louisville doctor helped a local man with Parkinson's disease now walk without using his cane.

"You don't appreciate being still until you can't," said Mark Riordan.

If you ask Riordan about his passions, he'll tell you he's a marathon runner, Army veteran and pickleball player. But in 2012, his life changed forever, when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's.

"My legs are quaking. My arms are tremoring," he remembered. Riordan was just 48 years old and already relying on a cane. His favorite hobbies were now off the table.

"I can't play anymore because of my balance," he said.

But then came Norton Healthcare Doctor Abigail Rao.

In Fall 2018, she introduced a new technique for deep brain stimulation, or DBS, surgeries. Dr. Rao pokes small holes in the skull and directs electric stimulation into parts of the brain to treat movement disorders.

Her first surgery was on Riordan. "I was very happy that he did well right after," she said.

Holding his hands out to show his doctor, Riordan's Parkinson's is under control. "See how still they are?" Before, he said, they were constantly shaking.

Nearly six years later, Rao is the first female neurosurgeon in Kentucky to complete more than 100 DBS surgeries. She helps patients with everything from tremors to epilepsy.

"It's really a reason that many of us went into this field," Rao said. "The focus of this subspecialty is on surgeries that improve quality of life, broadly speaking."

Though she's gotten more practice throughout the years, most of her techniques have stayed the same.

"You know, you got just as good as surgery as we do now," she told Riordan. He calls being able to walk without the cane, "special. It's a gift."

Rao's innovation continues to give Riordan and dozens of other patients more comfort and more control over their lives.

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