The Movement Disorders Unit at Florence Nightingale Hospitals provides comprehensive, compassionate and timely treatment for our patients. Our extensive experience in treating, researching and educating on movement disorders. Including ataxia, dystonia, essential tremor and Parkinson's disease, allows us to provide the best treatment for all our patients.
Parkinson's Disease - What to Expect?
Movement disorders can sometimes be very difficult to diagnose. Many patients come to our Unit after seeing neurologists outside of Florence Nightingale Hospitals for further diagnostic evaluation.
New patients first undergo a comprehensive evaluation that includes a detailed physical examination, laboratory testing, cognitive evaluation and brain imaging. These capabilities, alongside the experience and skill of our team of neurologists, allow us to make a quick and accurate diagnosis.
As soon as a diagnosis is made, we will be happy to provide follow-up care in our Sector or work with the patient's primary physician or neurologist. What's more, we can refer you to other specialists in Florence Nightingale.
Specialisation to the Highest Level
One very important factor that sets our Movement Disorders Unit apart is the size of our team and the level of specialization. We have an unusually large number of neurologists, each of whom has dedicated their lives to the study of a particular disorder. For example, a patient who is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease will be treated by a physician who has specialized in that disease.
In addition, we do not only offer medication treatment, but do everything we can to improve the patient's quality of life. For example, some patients with Parkinson's disease or dystonia may benefit from surgical treatment. Such as deep brain stimulation. In such cases, we will work with other professionals in the Department of Neurology to determine and implement the best option for surgery.
If therapy would be beneficial, we may refer you to our experienced physiotherapist, occupational therapist or speech therapist. A genetic counsellor and social worker round out our team and give us the opportunity to consider all aspects of the patient's condition.
Modern Treatment Options
Movement disorders can be relentlessly progressive conditions that lead to disability. About 50 years ago, they were incurable, but since then there have been quite a few advances in their treatment. Advances in modern understanding of the mechanisms of these disorders have led to tremendous advances in treating them – both medically and surgically. Our growing staff and equipment are designed to support these advances and achieve our mission of improving the lives of patients who suffer from these disorders.
The Movement Disorders Unit at Florence Nightingale Hospitals has extensive experience in botulinum toxin injection, both for dystonia and other indications such as drooling in Parkinson's disease. Our Centre is also one of the few in Europe to have experience in Duodopa treatment. Our neurosurgery team has been treating movement disorders together with the neurology team since 1998 and has experience with over a hundred patients.
Missions of the Centre
The primary missions of our Center for Parkinson's Disease and other movement disorders are:
- to provide the most professional and compassionate patient care;
- to initiate and direct clinical and basic research that meets the highest scientific standards;
- to train physicians and other health care professionals to become proficient in the recognition and treatment of Parkinson's disease. And other movement disorders, and to inspire them to advance in basic research or clinical research in the field of movement and neurodegenerative diseases.