Parkinson Gloves

Hospital launches the latest Parkinson’s gloves to reduce tremors

Doctors at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Thailand have developed lightweight and easy-to-use Parkinson’s gloves that can automatically reduce tremors, allowing Parkinson’s disease patients to enjoy social life and reducing side effects from medication and risk from brain surgery.

Tremors, slowness, stiffness — these are the noticeable symptoms of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), especially the hand tremors while resting which are found in 70% of patients. These uncontrollable tremors make patients appear disabled and unable to enjoy their daily routines, calling for a caretaker, which lowers their self-esteem and makes them scared to socialize.

The current method of treating Parkinson’s is taking a cocktail of medications, which is mostly unable to reduce all the tremors.

Some patients whose tremors are especially strong may need brain surgery, which is an always undesirable option due to its high cost and many side effects. T

This conundrum has inspired a team of researchers at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, led by Professor Dr. Roongroj Bhidayasiri and Assistant Professor Onanong Phokaewvarangkul, Ph.D. to research and develop the prototype of “tremor-reducing Parkinson’s gloves” since 2014. The product received a patent under the name portable tremor measuring and reducing device using electrical muscle stimulation in January 2017. Many research articles have been published in international medical journals to support the efficiency of the device. The team has now succeeded in developing the “5th generation tremor-reducing Parkinson’s gloves” which are lightweight, easy to wear, and effective, not to mention cheaper than similar imported device.

“The tremor-reducing Parkinson’s gloves are the first medical device that can help reduce tremors in the hands of PD patients through automatic electric stimulation of the hand muscles. We hope this will help reduce the tremors for the patients without having to increase the dosage of their medication unnecessarily and reduce the risk of brain surgery,” discussed Asst. Prof. Dr. Onanong in connection with the significance of the innovation for Parkinson’s disease.

Currently, there are over 10 million PD patients around the world and approximately 150,000 patients in Thailand. It is estimated that for every 100 elderly people (aged 60 and over), there is one with Parkinson’s disease.

“As we move further into the aging society, the number of PD patients will only increase. Our estimation predicts an increase of two to three times in the future.”

Dr.