According to Penn Medicine, around 10 million people in the United States are affected by essential tremor (ET). This neurological disorder profoundly affects patients' quality of life, making common things such as eating, drinking, and writing difficult, if not impossible. Now, a revolutionary therapy is changing the life of many affected, starting with a man who lived with ET for over 30 years.
Orlando Avendaño is a 72-year-old man who spent more than three decades with ET, which made his hand tremble frantically whenever he tried to do fine motor tasks. “The food falls out. I can’t eat with fork. I can’t use a fork, I try to use a big spoon, because you know, I don’t want people to see me,” Avendaño told NBC Miami. His wife, Iliana, added that they've even avoided visiting people because he felt ashamed. “Because of his nerves, he hasn’t been able to eat properly, and we’ve turned down many social and family invitations.”
The International Essential Tremor Foundation says, “People who have ET become disabled at worst and feel frustrated or embarrassed at best.” The foundation also points out that ET is often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, eight times as many people have ET as Parkinson’s—and it doesn't affect mainly only the elderly either.
Recently, Avendaño underwent a focused ultrasound treatment on his brain using an MRI machine. Without the need for surgery or anesthesia, the man remained fully conscious during the procedure. Aided by cutting-edge technology, neurosurgeon Dr. Lloyd Zucker targeted the area of the brain that caused the tremors with ultrasound, creating a small lesion that eradicates the involuntary movements—something the neurosurgeon has described as his “magic trick.”
“The MRI essentially focuses the ultrasound down onto a point, and if you look at it it's like a magnifying glass,” Dr. Zucker said. “And so we're focusing it down on a spot within the brain that contributes towards or is responsible for part of the tremor, and by doing that, we can knock the tremor out.” After a few hours of therapy, Avendaño won back the freedom he lost all those years ago.
“It’s probably the most wonderful thing,” added Dr. Zucker. “I’ve been doing it for years, and as you can see as I start to smile, you can't take this away, when you see the patients and the families and what it does for them. He'll go home, and he's going to sit there tonight at dinner, and all those things he couldn’t do, he's gonna be doing. How do you put an adjective on that one? You can't.”
So far, 79 medical centers in the U.S. offer this treatment, including the Delray Medical Center in South Florida, where Avendaño got this life-changing therapy. With this procedure, many can hopefully get another shot at independence and doing the things that many of us may take for granted.
A revolutionary therapy is changing the life of many patients affected by essential tremor, starting with Orlando Avendaño, a man from South Florida, who lived with this neurological disorder for over 30 years.
Sources: Innovative ultrasound treatment helps South Florida man living 30+ years with tremor; Essential Tremor on Penn Medicine; Facts about Essential Tremor
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