Surgery for Essential Tremor

Deep brain stimulation of the Ventral Intermedius Nucleus (Vim DBS) is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the management of essential tremor (ET) or tremor associated with Parkinson's disease. In this chapter we will focus on the treatment of ET and will describe the assessment of candidates for DBS, the operative procedure, post-operative management, risks and complication avoidance strategies. Indications are described, along with our patient selection process. The procedures for surgical planning including target and trajectory planning, the operative approach, intraoperative physiology and macroelectrode implantation are described.