Essential tremor treatment with focused ultrasound surgery

Focused ultrasound surgery is a modern treatment method for patients with medically refractory essential tremor (a condition when symptoms are not responsible to medication). It works by heating the part of the brain responsible for tremors with focused ultrasound energy. It was FDA approved in 2016. In addition, it's a non-invasive procedure, so the patient shouldn't feel any excessive pain or get any scars. The procedure is done while the patient is awake. During the focused ultrasound surgery, a few ultrasound beams target the specific brain region - the thalamus called VIM (the ventral intermediate nucleus). As a result, the tissues of that region slowly start to heat and are destroyed over time. As a result, that area doesn't produce involuntary activity, and tremors disappear. The main advantage of focused ultrasound therapy is that healthy tissues remain intact after the treatment, and no additional damage is done. To ensure that only the targeted brain region will be affected, medical practitioners often use MRI or other medical imaging methods as a control technique. Focused ultrasound surgery is a minimally invasive option for many essential tremor patients that help to control the cause of the disease. However, the number of procedures required might vary in each case, depending on the age, health status, and severity of symptoms.