How is halamotomy used to treat essential tremor?
The surgical treatment of essential tremor can involve a procedure called ‘thalamotomy’. This involves drilling a hole in the skull about the size of a nickel and then inserting a thin wire electrode targeting a structure called a thalamus. Once the tip of the electrode is in place, it’s either heated up or, in some cases, cooled down to actually injure the thalamus, causing a kind of a scar to be placed there. And that does effectively reduce tremor on the other side of the body. So, if you put the electrode into the right brain it will help the left hand tremor. The procedure is usually not done on both sides because of concern about the impact on speech, for example.
