Jonathan Wilhoite Blog: Scalpel-Free Brain Surgery Gaining Strong Popularity

Friday, August 26, 2016

Scalpel-Free Brain Surgery Gaining Strong Popularity

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Scalpel-free brain surgery may soon be the safest technology adopting a non-invasive ultrasound therapy to improve symptoms of a neurological disorder that causes intermittent and uncontrollable tremors.

Scalpel-free brain surgery gets a facelift

Not to be confused with Parkinson’s disease, the essential tremor – as what it is commonly called – is a common disorder that mainly affects the head and hands.

In a recent publication of the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from The Sunnybrook Hospital on Toronto, Canada, introduced a new ultrasound thalamotomy, which is a scalpel-free procedure that destroys bits and pieces of brain tissue in the thalamus region which is responsible for controlling muscle activity.

Essential tremors can occur at anytime, without regard to age or gender, but should not be confused with Parkinson’s disease which is a degenerative disease that results to brain damage.

Improved quality of life

“It has a significant impact on (patients’) quality of life – without making a hole in the skull or an incision,” says Dr. Nir Lipsman, co-author of the study and a neurosurgeon at the Sunnybrook Research Institute where this form of treatment is currently being exclusively provided by The Sunnybrook Hospital.

The study involved some 76 patients who were diagnosed with moderate to severe essential tremor conditions that were not responsive to any medication. The test participants were enrolled in a randomly controlled test where some were administrated MRI-guided focused ultrasound thalamotomy while others went through a placebo treatment.

After three months, those who underwent the non-invasive procedure had their conditions improve by 46 percent compared to the control group.

Lipsman said that the results have been ‘extremely rewarding’ and were thrilled to see the improvement among the patients.

Other test participants noted significant improvement over their conditions, where one of them was now able to write when it was not a possibility prior to the treatment.

Not effective for all

There’s just one downside to the process, since it did not work for some of the patients and doctors still do not have the answer as to why, but are now conducting ongoing research to find out.

Essential tremor is typically not a dangerous condition, but has been found to be an embarrassing by many of those who are afflicted by it. It may sometimes disappear over time, but there are cases where it could get worse over time.

It may occur at anytime and at any age, but is most common with people aged 40 and up.

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