GAMMA KNIFE

The Leksell Gamma Knife is an alternative or adjunct to conventional brain surgery.  The principles behind the development of the Gamma Knife were first conceived by a Swedish neurosurgeon, Lars Leksell, during the 1950s. He envisioned a multisource Gamma ray emitter that would be able to focus very accurately on an intracranial target and thus replace open surgery for some conditions. In 1967, the first Gamma Knife unit was put into clinical use in Karolinska and this was a 179 cobalt 60 source. The steps in treatment: step 1, step 2 and step 3.

Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery has been in use in the United States for over 10 years and there have been in excess of 300,000 procedures performed worldwide. The most common diseases treatable would be brain mets, AVM's and perhaps trigeminal neuralgia, (see world wide stats.)

For a complete discussion of Gamma Knife radiosurgery go here.