National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) now provides high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment for essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease, it said in a news conference yesterday.

The ultrasound treatment is performed without general anesthesia or needle guidance, leaves no implants and takes only three hours to complete, said Chen Shih-chieh (陳世杰), director of the hospital’s medical imaging department.

The non-invasive treatment utilizes a transducer helmet to emit 1,024 beams of ultrasound waves to cauterize a few millimeters of neural circuitry that causes tremors, said Wu Ruey-meei (吳瑞美), director of the hospital’s Parkinson’s and movement disorders center.

Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times

About 20 percent of patients might experience side effects such as vertigo and nausea for one to three months, she said.

However, a single procedure remains 60 to 70 percent effective four years after treatments, she said.

In Taiwan, focused ultrasound therapy is approved for use only in the treatment of essential tremor or Parkinson’s disease that manifests primarily in tremors, she said.

The hospital’s HIFU machine — one of 36 such machines in Asia — was first used last month to treat a 54-year-old man with Parkinson’s disease surnamed Yeh (葉), she said.

The patient had severe tremors in the hands that prevented him from buttoning his garments before the treatment reduced the symptoms by 90 percent to restore normal functions, she said.

The therapy is performed on one side of the patient at a time to avoid potential negative effects on cognition and speech, she said, adding that the procedure is not suitable for people with osteoporosis.

Drug therapy is the most common treatment for Parkinson’s, but its medical effects are limited, while electrical stimulation therapy requires intrusive implants of wires and batteries, the latter of which must be replaced after three to four years, hospital vice superintendent Kao Jia-horng (高嘉宏) said.

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