BALTIMORE – November 06, 2026 -- A Baltimore retiree who struggled to flip pancakes because of hand tremors went home the same day after an incisionless brain treatment at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center.
Mark Hunter, a grandfather who spent 25 years as a police officer, lives with essential tremor, a neurological condition that makes the hands shake involuntarily. Putting a screwdriver into a screw could take both hands. He became MedStar Health's first patient to undergo focused ultrasound.
The procedure took just over two hours
Dr. Justin Martello, chief of Neurology for the Baltimore region, performed the treatment. Focused ultrasound uses concentrated sound waves, guided by real-time MRI, to target the ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM) of the thalamus, a small structure in the brain. A carefully controlled lesion there disrupts the abnormal signals associated with tremor.
Patients stay awake and receive no implants
Deep brain stimulation requires surgery to implant electrodes in the brain. Focused ultrasound needs no incision and no implanted hardware. Patients remain awake so physicians can monitor their response, and improvements can be seen while the treatment is underway.
Hunter calls the difference between his treated and untreated hands "like night and day." He plans to have the procedure on his other hand as well.
FDA approval covers essential tremor and Parkinson's disease
The treatment is FDA-approved for adults with essential tremor or Parkinson's disease whose symptoms are not adequately controlled with medication. Published research in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that estimates of roughly seven million Americans with essential tremor may be conservative, because some people never seek medical attention.