Evolution of Movement Disorders Surgery Leading to Contemporary Focused Ultrasound Therapy for Tremor

Hena Ahmed; Wesley Field; Michael T Hayes; William Omar Contreras Lopez; Nathan McDannold; Srinivasan Mukundan Jr; Travis S Tierney

doi:10.1016/j.mric.2015.05.008

Evolution of Movement Disorders Surgery Leading to Contemporary Focused Ultrasound Therapy for Tremor

Magn Reson Imaging Clin N Am. 2015 Nov;23(4):515-22. doi: 10.1016/j.mric.2015.05.008. Epub 2015 Jul 11.

Authors

Hena Ahmed¹, Wesley Field¹, Michael T Hayes², William Omar Contreras Lopez³, Nathan McDannold⁴, Srinivasan Mukundan Jr⁴, Travis S Tierney⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, USA.
² Department of Neurology, South Shore Hospital, 55 Fogg Road, Weymouth, MA 02190, USA.
³ Division of Functional Neurosurgery, Institute of Psychiatry, University of São Paulo School of Medicine, Av. Dr. Arnaldo, 455 - Cerqueira César São Paulo, Brazil.
⁴ Division of Neuroradiology, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].

Abstract

Progressively less invasive neurosurgical approaches for the treatment of movement disorders have evolved, beginning with open craniotomy for placement of lesions within pyramidal structures followed by refined stereotactic ablation of extrapyramidal targets that encouraged nondestructive electrode stimulation of deep brain structures. A noninvasive approach using transcranial high-energy focused ultrasound has emerged for the treatment of intractable tremor. The ability to target discreet intracranial sites millimeters in size through the intact skull using focused acoustic energy marks an important milestone in movement disorders surgery. This article describes the evolution of magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound for ventrolateral thalamotomy for tremor.

Keywords: Essential tremor; Focused ultrasound; Movement disorders; Pallidotomy; Thalamotomy; Thermography.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Brain / pathology*
Brain / surgery*
High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Ablation / methods*
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Interventional / methods*
Movement Disorders / complications
Movement Disorders / surgery*
Tremor / etiology
Tremor / surgery*

Grants and funding

P01 CA174645/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States