People living with Essential Tremor can now receive cutting-edge treatment at The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, after the centre became the first in the North to offer the new service.
The UK’s first specialist neurosciences hospital won the contract to deliver the new service at the end of 2021, which will make it the first centre in the North of England, and only second in the country, to offer an incision-free treatment for the condition.
Essential Tremor is a neurological disorder that causes an uncontrollable shake or trembling in a part of the body.
Now, a treatment is available through Trans-cranial MR-guided Focused Ultrasound, or Focused Ultrasound for short, thermal tissue ablation is targeted at the key areas of the brain causing the tremors.
With over one million people living with Essential Tremor in the UK, statistics show around 25 per cent are severely disabled by their tremors.
Mr Jibril Osman Farah, consultant neurosurgeon and one of the lead clinicians for this project, hopes that the waiting list can be reduced significantly as a result.
“Those patients in the North of England waiting for this treatment can now come here to Liverpool, rather than have to wait to be treated in London, which can be difficult to get to,” he said.
“Focused Ultrasound is a groundbreaking treatment for patients with Essential Tremor.
“To test how effective the treatment is we ask patients to draw spirals before, during and after, and the results are so striking. Before it was a scribble, and after it is a clear spiral, the tremors are drastically reduced.”
Maureen Greenough had been living with Essential Tremor for several years before being the first to be offered the new treatment – developed and implemented by Insightec – at The Walton Centre.
The procedure was a complete success and she no longer has tremors in her right hand-side.
She said: “I couldn’t believe how immediate the change was. As soon as I left the treatment room I noticed that my right hand had stopped shaking, it was like the team at The Walton Centre had flipped a switch!
“Before this my writing was terrible, I couldn’t hold a cup without using both hands. I felt a lot of embarrassment and I didn’t feel comfortable eating in front of people.
“Now that’s all changed. We’re planning a holiday this year and we have a wedding in the summer to go to – I now cannot wait!
“The treatment The Walton Centre provides is excellent, and I will be forever grateful to the team for helping me.”
Eligible patients get one Focused Ultrasound treatment to reduce the tremors on one side of their body. Current regulatory approvals demonstrate good clinical durability, with tremor relief maintained at three years.
Medical director Dr Andrew Nicolson said: “We consider this treatment a game-changer for our patients with Essential Tremor.
“Those eligible will be able to have the treatment and see their symptoms on one side of their body essentially disappear. Usually to achieve this effect in Movement Disorders, it would require much more invasive surgical intervention.
“It’s been an incredible team effort and the first treatment today marks the start of an invaluable service we can offer our patients.”
