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The Queen Square Imaging Centre’s first patient has received ground-breaking focused ultrasound treatment for essential tremor.

The Queen Square Imaging Centre has installed the UK independent healthcare sector’s first MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound System, enabling the launch of a new service that offers incisionless treatment for people living with Essential Tremor.

Linda had been living with disabling Essential Tremor for 20 years before being the first patient to be offered the innovative treatment in Queen Square.  The procedure was a success, with an immediate and significant reduction in the tremor in her right arm

Following her visit to Queen Square, she said “when I read the National Tremor Foundation’s Newsletter about Queen Square starting focused ultrasound, I did not dream that just weeks later, I would have the treatment myself.  I was apprehensive but I soon got involved in the preparation and then the process itself, with the eventual realisation that it was working.  The whole team have been very supportive and encouraging – I couldn’t have wished for more.”

All patients undergo an initial comprehensive pre-assessment led by a specialist multidisciplinary team of neurosurgeons and neurologists.  Patient who are then assessed as being eligible can receive treatment to reduce the tremors on one side of their body. 

Current data demonstrates clinical durability, with tremor relief maintained at three years.

Operations Manager, Peter Sutton said “We are excited to bring this innovative treatment to Queen Square and provide more support to patients with Essential Tremor.  To achieve the result, we saw with our first patient would previously require much more invasive surgical intervention, with longer recovery times and higher risk.  It’s been a privilege to be part of the team effort to reach this milestone and begin providing this important treatment that can see a patient’s symptoms essentially disappear in a single, relatively short, outpatient visit.”

The arrival of focused ultrasound in Queen Square is a long-awaited complement to the functional neurosurgery service at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, the largest and most active service of its kind in the UK.   For more information about the focused ultrasound service in Queen Square, visit https://queensquare.com/services/focused-ultrasound-essential-tremor-treatment/