Movement disorders

Every single movement you make involves an interaction with the nervous system and your muscles. Most of the time, these movements are voluntary. However, sometimes voluntary movements are slowed, or involuntary movements occur. Neurological conditions that lead to these types of movements are often classified as "movement disorders."

There is a complex interaction between the nervous system and your muscles. Anything that disrupts these connections in key areas of the brain can interfere with a person’s movements.

Some of the common causes of movement-related issues include:

• Damage to the brain, spinal cord or nerves
• Genetics
• Infections
• Medications (side effects or prolonged use)
• Metabolic issues
• Stroke (cerebrovascular accident)
• Vascular disease

In some instances, your treatment may involve curing or resolving an underlying condition. In other cases, you may need:

• Botulinum toxins (commonly known as Botox)
• Medication
• Neuromodulation therapy
• Functional neurosurgery or other advanced surgeries
• Symptom and pain management

Deep brain stimulation (DBS)

DBS is a minimally invasive implantation of a device that delivers electrical stimulation to the part of the brain that helps control bodily movement.

The device is implanted in the brain and a battery device is placed under the chest wall. The device sends an electrical current to the brain, which alters or stops the messages being sent to the brain that result in the tremors, muscle spasms or other movement-related issues. The goal is to help relieve the symptoms of the neurological disorder being treated.

Who can benefit from DBS

Typically, DBS is reserved for if you have movement-related symptoms that are disrupting your quality of life, or have not received desirable results from other treatment options.

Based on the underlying cause of your movement disorder, DBS can be incredibly effective. The benefits can last for several years and significantly reduce slowness, stiffness and tremors, particularly if you have movement-related issues as a result of medications.

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS)

SRS ("knifeless" surgery) delivers doses of pinpointed radiation to treat neurological diseases. Because this treatment technique is so precise, it minimizes risk to nearby sections of the brain that are functioning properly.

Noninvasive SRS treatments are completed in a matter of hours as outpatient procedures. Typically, you can be discharged within 12 hours and return to your preoperative lifestyle by the next day.

SRS for essential tremor treatment

SRS is used to treat brain tumors, trigeminal neuralgia, vascular malformations and neurological disorders, such as essential tremor. The treatment includes almost 200 beams of focused low-dose radiation which destroy the overactive cells in the part of the thalamus that helps coordinate movement — the ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM). Typically, after receiving SRS, you may see a reduction in tremor within three to six months.