Comparative Evaluation of Magnetic Resonance-Guided Focused Ultrasound Surgery for Essential Tremor

Treatment options for patients with drug-resistant essential tremor (ET) are limited. Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) is an emerging technique to treat refractory ET.

To present MRgFUS as an alternative to radiofrequency (RF) thalamotomy or deep brain stimulation (DBS) for ET treatment.

We retrospectively analyzed 59 patients who underwent unilateral surgery for drug-resistant ET. Treatments included RF thalamotomy (n = 17), DBS (n = 19), and MRgFUS (n = 23). The outcomes measured were tremor severity and treatment-related complications.

At 1 month postoperatively, 100% of RF thalamotomy patients, 89.5% of DBS patients, and 91.3% of MRgFUS patients exhibited absent/mild tremor (successful treatment); other patients exhibited partial relief. At 12 months postoperatively, treatment success for each procedure was observed in 70.6, 84.2, and 78.3% of patients, respectively. At 1 month postoperatively, treatment-related complications had occurred in 58.8, 5.3, and 13.0% of patients, respectively. At 12 months postoperatively, side effects persisted in 11.8, 21.1, and 4.4% of patients, respectively. No statistical differences in treatment success were observed between treatments or over time. Complication rates differed between treatment modalities (p < 0.01) and were lowest in the MRgFUS group.

Patients with drug-resistant ET received equivalent results from RF thalamotomy, DBS, and MRgFUS. DBS and MRgFUS resulted in fewer treatment-related complications.