Deep Brain Stimulation and Frameless Stereotactic Radiosurgery in the Treatment of Drug Resistant Invalidating Tremor

Stereotactic lesioning of thalamus and basal ganglia for treatment of tremor is a well-known procedure which, prior to the introduction of deep brain stimulation, or DBS, was usually achieved using stereotactic surgical procedures.

Radiosurgery of invisible targets to treat movement disorders and intractable pain are still the domain of frame-based procedures, due to the need of a solid reference system registered to the anterior commissure-posterior commissure (AC-PC) line, which allows the use of stereotactic atlases.

In this study we want to utilize a mathematical method that uses atlas-derived stereotactic coordinates to perform frameless images-guided radiosurgery of such functional targets Particularly the aim of the present study is to investigate both the efficacy and the safety of the methodology to treat upper limb and hand tremor in elderly or in patients which are not ot susceptible of surgical procedures. For these reasons a dose escalation prospective trial have been designed.