How MR-guided Focused Ultrasound Helps Patients with Severe Hand Tremors

How MR-guided Focused Ultrasound Helps Patients with Severe Hand Tremors

The frustration and impacts of hand tremors are numerous and can even be debilitating. Every day tasks like jotting down a quick note or even grabbing a cup of tea can become difficult; mobile phones will be impossible to use. Severe hand tremors are often associated with neurological disorders like Essential Tremor or Parkinson’s disease, which are both disorders that affect the brain’s ability to control movements.

Previously, tremor treatment consisted of taking medications or going through a major surgical procedure. With the evolution of technology, healthcare now has the means to provide focused and less invasive alternatives to surgery. MR-guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) is a brain surgery alternative that is helping patients deal with severe hand tremors.

The Basics of Hand Tremors

The contractions and relaxations of the muscles that result from the involuntary repetitive movements are called a tremor. Occasional tremors are generally nothing to worry about, but if they happen frequently, they are most likely associated with some form of neurological disease.

Here are some of the most common causes of hand tremors:

• Essential tremors: This is a type of neurological disorder that causes uncontrollable shaking of the hands while doing tasks like writing or grabbing objects.

• Parkinson’s Disease: This is an advancing nerve disorder that affects a person’s movements, balance, and coordination. The tremors happen most, if not all the time, when the person’s hands are relaxed.

In the most serious of cases, tremors severely limit the person’s ability to do activities of daily living, thus losing their independence.

Severe Hand Tremors

• Hand tremors are often most pronounced when the person is doing an action, but they can also happen when the hands are completely still, and this can happen for a variety of reasons.
• Hand tremors can make some daily tasks very difficult to the point of being impossible. For example, hand tremors can make writing, eating, and using a smartphone so challenging that some people can’t do them at all.
• Hand tremors that are caused by stress. Many people with hand tremors have the feeling that they are shaking more than normal when they are stressed.
• Tremors that spread to the head and voice. In some cases, the tremors are not limited to the hands and may also affect the head and voice.

In cases where daily activities are being restricted because of the tremors, it is highly advisable that the person see a doctor.

How are Tremor Disorders Diagnosed?

A tremor’s cause can only be determined after an extensive assessment by a neurologist or a specialist in movement disorders.

Initial steps involve a comprehensive analysis of the patient’s medical history, including the timing of the tremors and the negative impacts they exert on the patient’s daily functioning.

A neurological assessment is conducted to evaluate the patient’s motor skills, equilibrium, reflexes, and coordination. The presence of a tremor – active vs passive – can help clinicians differentiate between an essential tremor and a tremor originating from Parkinson’s disease.

Patients are occasionally required to undergo other neurological examinations. These may include CT or MRI brain scans/imagery.

Physicians are able to formulate a treatment regimen after determining the cause of a tremor.

Classical Treatment Alternatives

Typically, the first option is a prescription for an anti-epileptic drug, which is used to control seizures by inhibiting the unregulated electrical activities of the brain. The tremors may decrease, and the patient’s daily activities may improve.

Deep-brain stimulation is a surgical option determined by the attending physician if medications continue to be inadequate. Electrodes are implanted into the patient’s brain in order to regulate the unmodifiable electrical activities which cause the patient to tremor.

Although the aforementioned surgical option may prove beneficial, it, like all surgical procedures, is not a risk-free alternative.

What is MR-guided focused ultrasound?

In non-invasive medicine, constructive focused ultrasound (CFU) is used to target and pulse potentially harmful ultrasound waves within the brain to stop involuntary tremors.

Patients are placed into an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner, and while they are there, the doctors can “see” the MRI scan “live” while the doctor uses ultrasound energy to target the precise area of focus.

The brain’s waves are manipulated to cause a focused thermal induction in the area, which disrupts the signal patterns of the brain, causing the tremors in the patient.

The brain is a single and very complex organ. No devices are implants, making this therapy unique in ultrasound-focused therapy.

Advantages of MR-guided focused ultrasound

• The therapy is strictly non-invasive, eliminating the risks associated with surgical incisions and implants.
• Surgical precision is achieved using real-time MRI guidance to target exact brain areas.
• Faster recovery compared to traditional surgery.
• Immediate improvement in tremor activity can often be observed during the procedure.
• Suitable for patients whose tremors are not controlled by medication.

This is also the case with the Vattikuti Technologies MR Guided Focused Ultrasound Technology, which is an innovative solution focused on providing advanced precision neurosurgery. Vattikuti Technologies focuses on improving access to minimally invasive treatments for movement disorders.

Hope for Patients with Hand Tremors

Having severe hand tremors can be very difficult. MR Guided Focused Ultrasound is an innovative form of treatment that allows patients the ability to avoid traditional brain surgery. Therefore, patients are also able to benefit from advanced, non-invasive treatment options.

The combination of early identification, proper treatment, and advanced technology is enabling more and more people to control their tremors and improve their everyday lives.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why do some people suffer from tremors in their hands?
Hand tremors can be a symptom of a number of neurological disorders. Some of these include essential tremors or the earlier stages of Parkinson’s, both of which interfere with the brain’s control of movement.

2. Is MR-guided focused ultrasound a safe procedure?
Yes, it is considered a safe procedure as long as it is performed properly. MR-guided focused ultrasound is a non-invasive procedure, meaning it does not involve any surgical cuts and is performed without a scalpel.

3. Who can benefit from MR-guided focused ultrasound?
Patients suffering from tremors that do not respond to medication are potential candidates for this therapy, especially with advancements supported by technologies like those from Vattikuti Technologies.