Deep-Brain Stimulation for Essential Tremor and Other Tremor Syndromes: A Narrative Review of Current Targets and Clinical Outcomes

Tremor is a prevalent symptom associated with multiple conditions, including essential tremor (ET), Parkinson’s disease (PD), multiple sclerosis (MS), stroke and trauma. The surgical management of tremor evolved from stereotactic lesions to deep-brain stimulation (DBS), which allowed safe and reversible interference with specific neural networks. This paper reviews the current literature on DBS for tremor, starting with a detailed discussion of current tremor targets (ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus (Vim), prelemniscal radiations (Raprl), caudal zona incerta (Zi), thalamus (Vo) and subthalamic nucleus (STN)) and continuing with a discussion of results obtained when performing DBS in the various aforementioned tremor syndromes. Future directions for DBS research are then briefly discussed.