ESSENTIAL TREMORS
Essential tremors are the most common form of tremor,
even more so than Parkinson’s disease. Unlike Parkinson’s,
the essential tremor is not usually present when a patient is resting,
but rather becomes noticeable when he or she tries to perform an
activity such as drinking from a glass, writing, or cutting with
a knife.
SYMPTOMS
In most patients with essential tremor, handwriting
is impossible or at best illegible. Drinking from a cup, cutting
with a knife, or bringing a forkful of food up to one’s mouth
is impossible.
TREATMENT
Some medications may be helpful in controlling essential
tremor early on but as the tremor worsens medications are not usually
effective.
TREATMENT WITH GAMMA KNIFE RADIOSURGERY
Conventional open stereotactic neurosurgery or non-invasive
Gamma Knife Radiosurgery can be performed to relieve symptoms of
essential tremor. While conventional open neurosurgery requires
the use of a needle or an external guiding device, the Gamma Knife
uses 201 narrow beams of gamma radiation to treat a small, critically
located target in the brain non-invasively.
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