Deep brain stimulation of the ventral intermediate nucleus in patients with essential tremor: stimulation below intercommissural line is more efficient but equally effective as stimulation above.

Background: The posterior subthalamic area (PSA), ventral to the intercommissural line (ICL) and the ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM), has been suggested as a promising target for deep brain stimulation (DBS) in patients suffering from essential tremor (ET). In this study the clinical benefit of VIM and PSA DBS on postural tremor suppression was systematically evaluated in a two step approach with a 3D ultrasound kinematic analysis tool.

Methods: We defined the exact position of 40 VIM-DBS-electrodes from 21 ET patients.