Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Gamma knife

 
Medical Glossary: Gamma knife
Home > Library > Health > Medical Glossary

High-dose radiation treatment for intracranial tumors.

Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Wikipedia: Gamma knife
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Gamma knife
NRC graphic of the Leksell Gamma Knife.

A gamma knife is a device used to treat brain tumors with a high dose of radiation therapy in one day. The device was invented at the Karolinska Institute in 1967 by Lars Leksell, a Swedish neurosurgeon.

The gamma knife device contains 201 cobalt-60 sources of approximately 30 curies (1.1 TBq) each, placed in a circular array in a heavily shielded assembly. The device aims gamma radiation through a target point in the patient's brain. The patient wears a specialized helmet that is surgically fixed to their skull so that the brain tumor remains stationary at target point of the gamma rays. An ablative dose of radiation is thereby sent through the tumor in one treatment session, while surrounding brain tissues are relatively spared.

Contents

Uses

Radiosurgery uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors, delivered precisely to avoid damaging healthy brain tissue. Gamma knife radiosurgery is able to accurately focus many beams of high-intensity gamma radiation to converge on one or more tumors. Each individual beam is relatively low energy, so the radiation has little effect on intervening brain tissue and is concentrated only at the tumor itself.

Effectiveness

Gamma knife radiosurgery has proven effective for patients with benign or malignant brain tumors, vascular malformations such as an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), pain or other functional problems.[1][2][3][4] For treatment of trigeminal neuralgia the procedure may be used repeatedly on patients.

The risks of gamma knife radiosurgery treatment are very small[5] and complications are related to the condition being treated.[6][7]

See also

Gallery

Gamma knife, three-quarters view

Gamma knife, side view

Footnotes

  1. ^ Régis J, Bartolomei F, Hayashi M, Chauvel P (2002). "What role for radiosurgery in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy". Zentralbl. Neurochir. 63 (3): 101–5. doi:10.1055/s-2002-35824. PMID 12457334. 
  2. ^ Kwon Y, Whang CJ (1995). "Stereotactic Gamma Knife radiosurgery for the treatment of dystonia". Stereotact Funct Neurosurg 64 Suppl 1: 222–7. PMID 8584831. 
  3. ^ Donnet A, Valade D, Régis J (February 2005). "Gamma knife treatment for refractory cluster headache: prospective open trial". J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. 76 (2): 218–21. doi:10.1136/jnnp.2004.041202. PMID 15654036. 
  4. ^ Herman JM, Petit JH, Amin P, Kwok Y, Dutta PR, Chin LS (May 2004). "Repeat gamma knife radiosurgery for refractory or recurrent trigeminal neuralgia: treatment outcomes and quality-of-life assessment". Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 59 (1): 112–6. doi:10.1016/j.ijrobp.2003.10.041. PMID 15093906. 
  5. ^ Chin LS, Lazio BE, Biggins T, Amin P (May 2000). "Acute complications following gamma knife radiosurgery are rare". Surg Neurol 53 (5): 498–502; discussion 502. doi:10.1016/S0090-3019(00)00219-6. PMID 10874151. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0090-3019(00)00219-6. 
  6. ^ Stafford SL, Pollock BE, Foote RL, et al. (November 2001). "Meningioma radiosurgery: tumor control, outcomes, and complications among 190 consecutive patients". Neurosurgery 49 (5): 1029–37; discussion 1037–8. doi:10.1097/00006123-200111000-00001. PMID 11846894. http://meta.wkhealth.com/pt/pt-core/template-journal/lwwgateway/media/landingpage.htm?issn=0148-396X&volume=49&issue=5&spage=1029. 
  7. ^ Cho DY, Tsao M, Lee WY, Chang CS (May 2006). "Socioeconomic costs of open surgery and gamma knife radiosurgery for benign cranial base tumors". Neurosurgery 58 (5): 866–73; discussion 866–73. doi:10.1227/01.NEU.0000209892.42585.9B. PMID 16639320. 

References

  • Sheehan J, Yen CP, Steiner L (August 2006). "Gamma knife surgery-induced meningioma. Report of two cases and review of the literature". J. Neurosurg. 105 (2): 325–9. doi:10.3171/jns.2006.105.2.325. PMID 17219842. 
  • Rowe J, Grainger A, Walton L, Silcocks P, Radatz M, Kemeny A (January 2007). "Risk of malignancy after gamma knife stereotactic radiosurgery". Neurosurgery 60 (1): 60–5; discussion 65–6. doi:10.1227/01.NEU.0000255492.34063.32. PMID 17228253. 
  • Pan HC, Sheehan J, Stroila M, Steiner M, Steiner L (January 2005). "Gamma knife surgery for brain metastases from lung cancer". J. Neurosurg. 102 Suppl: 128–33. PMID 15662795. 
  • Mack A, Czempiel H, Kreiner HJ, Dürr G, Wowra B (April 2002). "Quality assurance in stereotactic space. A system test for verifying the accuracy of aim in radiosurgery". Med Phys 29 (4): 561–8. doi:10.1118/1.1463062. PMID 11991128. 
  • William Regine; Lawrence Chin (2008). Principles of Stereotactic Surgery. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 0-387-71069-8. 

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Medical Glossary. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Gamma knife".  Read more