A gamma knife (or Leksell gamma knife) is a device used to treat brain tumors with a high dose of radiation therapy in one day. A brain tumor is any intracranial Tumor created by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division, normally either in the Brain itself ( Neurons Radiation therapy (or radiotherapy) is the medical use of Ionizing radiation as part of Cancer treatment to control Malignant The device was invented by Lars Leksell, a Swedish neurosurgeon, in 1967 at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Lars Leksell (1907-1986 was a Swedish Physician and Professor of Neurosurgery at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Karolinska Institutet (often translated from Swedish into English as the Karolinska Institute, and in older texts often as the Royal Caroline "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. As of March 2008 there are 259 devices deployed worldwide. [1]
The gamma knife device contains 201 cobalt-60 sources of approximately 30 curies (1. Cobalt-60 (60Co is a Radioactive isotope of Cobalt, with a Half life of 5 A CURIE (short for Compact URI) is an abbreviated URI expressed in CURIE syntax and may be found in both XML and non-XML grammars 1 TBq) each, placed in a circular array in a heavily shielded assembly. The becquerel (symbol Bq) is the SI derived unit of radioactivity. Radiation protection, sometimes known as radiological protection, is the science of protecting people and the environment from the harmful effects of Ionizing radiation The device aims gamma radiation through a target point in the patient's brain. Gamma rays (denoted as &gamma) are a form of Electromagnetic radiation or light emission of frequencies produced by sub-atomic particle interactions 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.
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Efficiency
Gamma knife radiosurgery has proved effective for patients with benign or malignant brain tumors, vascular malformations such as an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), pain or other functional problems. Radiosurgery, also known as stereotactic radiotherapy is a Medical procedure which allows non-invasive treatment of benign and malignant conditions avascular malformations Malignant (from the Latin roots mal- = "bad" and -genus = "born" is a medical term used to describe a severe and progressively worsening disease The blood vessels are part of the Circulatory system and function to transport Blood throughout the body Cerebral arteriovenous malformation Arteriovenous malformation or AVM in the majority of cases is a Congenital disorder consisting of a connection between Pain, in the sense of physical pain, is a typical sensory experience that may be described as the unpleasant awareness of a noxious stimulus or bodily harm The procedure is less invasive than alternative surgeries such as micro-decompression. The term invasive in Medicine has two meanings A Medical procedure which penetrates or breaks the Skin or a Body cavity, i For treatment of trigeminal neuralgia the procedure may be used repeatedly on patients. Trigeminal neuralgia (TN, or Tic Doloureux, (also known as prosopalgia is a neuropathic disorder of the Trigeminal nerve that causes episodes of intense
Ultimately, consideration for gamma knife radiosurgery treatment is contingent upon the patient's diagnosis, medical history and the case's overall severity upon consultation. Risk assessment is a common first step in a Risk management process The medical history or Anamnesis of a Patient is information gained by a Physician or other healthcare professional by asking specific questions In some instances, radiation oncologists will consider treatment for patients with metastatic disease, the elderly and whose life span will not exceed fifteen years, as well as those with inoperable lesions. Metastasis ( Greek: displacement μετά=next + στάσις=placement, plural metastases) sometimes abbreviated mets, A lesion is any abnormal tissue found on or in an organism usually damaged by disease or trauma
The risks of gamma knife radiosurgery treatment include but are not limited to radiation necrosis, secondary malignancy caused by the radiation (ie: formation of new tumor), bleeding, infection from the placement of the stereotactic headframe, paralysis, and death. Risk is a Concept that denotes the precise probability of specific eventualities Necrosis (in Greek Νεκρός = "dead" is the name given to unnatural Death of cells and living tissue. Bleeding, technically known as hemorrhaging / haemorrhaging (see American and British spelling differences) is the loss of Blood from An infection is the detrimental Colonization of a host Organism by a foreign Species. Paralysed redirects here For other uses see xx Paralysed (disambiguation Paralysis is the complete loss of Muscle function Death is the termination of the biological functions that define living Organisms It refers both to a specific
Operating principles
Radiosurgery uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors, delivered with surgical precision 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.
See also
- External beam radiotherapy
- Minimally invasive procedure
- Radiosurgery
- Radiation therapy
- Stereotactic surgery
Footnotes
- ^ Leksell Gamma Knife 15 years later (Czech). External beam radiotherapy otherwise known as teletherapy, is the most frequently used form of Radiotherapy. Minimally invasive surgical procedures avoid open invasive surgery in favor of closed or local surgery with less trauma Radiosurgery, also known as stereotactic radiotherapy is a Medical procedure which allows non-invasive treatment of benign and malignant conditions avascular malformations Radiation therapy (or radiotherapy) is the medical use of Ionizing radiation as part of Cancer treatment to control Malignant Stereotactic surgery or stereotaxy is a Minimally-invasive form of surgical intervention which makes use of a three-dimensional Coordinates system Retrieved on 2008-03-27. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 196 BC - Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt. 1309 - Pope Clement V excommunicates “Article about the national-wide fundraising campaign in Czechoslovakia to obtain the device, written by the František Janouch, the main organizer. ”
References
- Sheehan et al. Gamma knife surgery-induced meningioma. Report of two cases and review of the literature. J Neurosurg. 2006 Aug;105(2):325-9.
- Rowe et al. Risk of Malignancy after Gamma Knife Radiosurgery, Neurosurgery. 60(1):60-66, January 2007.
- Sheehan et al. Gamma knife surgery for brain metastases from lung cancer, J Neurosurg, No. 102, Suppl:128-33, 2005
- Mack et al. Quality assurance in stereotactic space. A system for verifying the accuracy of aim in radiosurgery. Medical Physics 29:4. April 2002.
- Lawrence Chin, MD and William Regine, MD, (Editors), Principles and Practice of Stereotactic Radiosurgery(2008)
External links
- Clinical Bibliography - Bibliography of published papers regarding Gamma Knife surgery. Includes downloadable bibliographies for various conditions.
- Gamma Knife History from the University of Virginia
- Cross-sectional view of Gamma Knife (Model C)
- About Gamma Knife Radiosurgery and Step by Step Procedure
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