493546_sm1.pdf (39.99 kB)
Supplementary Material for: Confined Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation in Refractory Essential Tremor
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posted on 2018-11-19, 12:33 authored by Isaacs D.A., Butler J., Sukul V., Rodriguez W., Pallavaram S., Tolleson C., Fang J.Y., Phibbs F.T., Yu H., Konrad P.E., Hedera P.Background: Thalamic ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM) deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective therapy for medication-refractory essential tremor (ET). However, 13–40% of patients with an initially robust tremor efficacy lose this benefit over time despite reprogramming attempts. At our institution, a cohort of ET patients with VIM DBS underwent implantation of a second anterior (ventralis oralis anterior; VOA) DBS lead to permit “confined stimulation.” We sought to assess whether confined stimulation conferred additional tremor capture compared to VIM or VOA stimulation alone. Methods: Seven patients participated in a protocol-based programming session during which a video-recorded Fahn-Tolosa-Marin Part A (FTM-A) tremor rating scale was used in the following 4 DBS states: off stimulation, VIM stimulation alone, VOA stimulation alone, and dual lead (confined) stimulation. Results: The average (SD) baseline FTM-A off score was 17.6 (4.0). VIM stimulation alone lowered the average FTM-A total score to 6.9 (4.0). Confined stimulation further attenuated the tremor, reducing the total score to 5.7 (2.8). Conclusions: Confined thalamic DBS can provide additional symptomatic benefits in patients with unsatisfactory tremor control from VIM or VOA stimulation alone.