Deep brain stimulation for arm tremor: one-year blinded follow-up of a randomized trial.

Authors

Nadja Kvernmo, Martin M Reich, Jonas Roothans, Ane E Konglund, Are H Pripp, Espen Dietrichs, Jens Volkmann, Inger Marie Skogseid

Published in

Neurological research and practice. Volume 8. Issue 1. Oct 09, 2026. Epub Oct 09, 2026.

Abstract

To present the secondary endpoints at one-year blinded follow-up from our randomized controlled study, that compared the efficacy of DBS in the ventral-intermediate thalamic nucleus (VIM) with the posterior subthalamic area (PSA) three months each in crossover design, and showed significantly greater reduction of the Sum dominant arm tremor score (Fahn-Tolosa-Marin) during the PSA-DBS period. The outcomes at one year are now reported to verify target choice and sustained benefit with clinically optimized free programming.
Forty-five patients with isolated or combined arm action tremor received four-level DBS leads to reach both VIM (upper two levels) and PSA (lower two), and were randomized post-operatively to VIM-DBS month 1-3 followed by PSA-DBS month 4-6, or vice versa. Thereafter electrode choice was free as judged by best clinical outcome. Predefined secondary endpoints were the tremor score improvements from preoperative to the one-year follow-up for dominant and non-dominant arm, other body regions, total score, two patient-rated measures and adverse events.
At the one-year follow-up, Sum dominant arm tremor scores had improved from median 24 at baseline to 4 (p<.001, n = 43), corresponding to median 79% improvement. All other secondary endpoints also improved significantly (p<.001). Median action tremor improvement was for Essential tremor(ET) 83%, for Parkinson´s disease(PD) and Dystonic tremor 100% and for Cerebellar tremor 55%. Over 90% of stimulated contacts were in PSA.
At one year, good and sustained tremor suppression from PSA-DBS was confirmed in ET, PD and Dystonic tremor. Suppression of Cerebellar tremor was more variable.
NCT03156517, May 29, 2017.

PMID:
42855742
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 10 Oct 2026.

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