Rescue Ventral Intermediate Thalamus Deep Brain Stimulation to Address Refractory Tremor Following Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation With Brittle Dyskinesia

This chapter discusses a case in which a “rescue” deep brain stimulation (DBS) lead was implanted to address suboptimal tremor control. The patient was a 52-year-old woman with disabling bilateral postural and action hand tremor who also had mild parkinsonian signs. An essential tremor (ET)–Parkinson disease (PD) syndrome was suspected, and subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS was pursued. Attempts at optimizing tremor control by reprogramming were limited by the induction of brittle dyskinesia even with small amounts of stimulation. Bilateral ventral intermediate thalamus DBS leads were then implanted, and the tremors improved significantly. Troubleshooting strategies for optimizing tremor control and reducing STN DBS–induced brittle dyskinesia are discussed. The chapter reviews important learning points on DBS target selection for ET, PD, and ET-PD spectrum syndromes.