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Published on: December 13, 2017
Effects on Gait and Balance of VIM Gamma Knife Radiosurgery in Essential Tremor
Valentin Mira1,2, Babette Zwaard1, Emmanuelle Boutin2
1AMU-CRNS, Centre de recherche en psychologie et neurosciences, Marseille, France.
Introduction:
Essential tremor (ET) is the most common movement disorder, characterized by an action tremor in the upper limbs. Neurosurgical techniques targeting the thalamic ventrointermediate nucleus (VIM) including thermocoagulation demonstrated a potential risk for gait and posture worsening. This study evaluates the potential effect of VIM Gamma Knife radiosurgery (GKR) in ET on gait and posture performances.
Methods:
We conducted a prospective study to quantitatively assess gait and balance in severe ET patients before and 1 year after unilateral GKR. Seventy-three patients were included in this series.
Results:
First, we confirmed the unilateral GKR efficacy in severe ET patients: global tremor score and impairments in activities of daily living improved, respectively, by 67% and 71.7%. The global gait and posture analysis found no significant differences before and 1 year after GKR. Three patients (4.1%) developed mild to moderate gait and posture impairment with proprioceptive ataxia. All of these AEs were induced by a hyper-response to radiosurgery.
Conclusions:
Gait and posture performances were not statistically significant at the population. Nevertheless, gait and posture worsened in 4% of patients after GKR, all in the setting of hyper-response. This study shows that GKR may be a safe neurosurgical alternative to improve ADL in a population of patients with TE.
