health

This is a human-interest news report, not a clinical study. It describes a single patient — Inma, a 52-year-old woman from Viladecans, Spain — who suffered from trigeminal neuralgia, a condition sometimes called "the suicide disease" because it produces what many describe as the most intense pain a person can experience (severe electrical-shock pain triggered by everyday acts like eating or talking). After exhausting all other treatments, she was treated in February at Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol (Can Ruti, Badalona) using HIFU — High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (ultrasonidos de alta intensidad). HIFU uses precisely targeted sound waves to destroy a tiny region of brain tissue without surgery or incisions. The hospital is described as the first in Catalonia, and one of the first in Spain, to use HIFU for neuropathic pain of this kind. Inma reported dramatic and immediate relief the same day.

Why does this matter for people with Parkinson's? HIFU is already an approved, non-invasive treatment for tremor-dominant Parkinson's disease — it's the same technology, applied to a different brain target. This article shows the technology is being actively expanded at specialist centres to tackle neuropathic and central pain, which affects a significant minority of people living with Parkinson's and is often under-recognised and undertreated. One patient's story is not evidence of efficacy at a population level, but it signals that neurological centres with HIFU capability are beginning to explore pain as a target. If you live with Parkinson's and have severe, medication-resistant pain, it is worth asking a movement-disorder specialist whether any HIFU programme near you is investigating pain indications.