Operation makes dementia patients faster and smarterJanuary
25th, 2011 in Medicine & Health / Neuroscience Researchers from
the University of Gothenburg and Sahlgrenska University Hospital
are the first in the world to show that an operation can help
patients with dementia caused by white matter changes and
hydrocephalus. Presented in the American Journal of
Neurosurgery, the results are based on the world's first study
to demonstrate the effects of a shunt operation using a placebo
control. 14 patients were followed for an average of three and a
half years after the operation, with half being given a non-
functioning shunt in other words a sham operation and the other
half a functioning shunt. This is the equivalent to the placebo
given in drug trials to determine how much of the treatment's
effect is down to the patient's and others' expectations. "For
obvious reasons, this is problematic in a surgical context and
surgical placebo studies are highly unusual," says Magnus
Tisell, docent at the Sahlgrenska Aca