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The gamma knife directs more than 200 thin beams of gamma radiation at different angles toward a single point in a person's brain. While each beam delivers a trivial amount of radiation, the spot where they converge receives enough energy to destroy that tissue, making the gamma knife a precision tool for attacking small tumors , malformed ...
Radiosurgery is surgery using radiation, [1] that is, the destruction of precisely selected areas of tissue using ionizing radiation rather than excision with a blade. Like other forms of radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy), it is usually used to treat cancer.
See proton therapy for a good example of the different effects of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) vs. charged particle therapy. This procedure reduces damage to healthy tissue between the charged particle radiation source and the tumor and sets a finite range for tissue damage after the tumor has been reached.
When the Leeds centre opened in March 2009, there were only four other centres in the UK which specialised in the treatment of brain disease by a Gamma Knife. It is home to the world's most advanced Gamma Knife – the £3m Leksell Perfexion, manufactured by Elekta. In January 2010 the centre hosted an international conference “Extending the ...
Stereotactic surgery is a minimally invasive form of surgical intervention that makes use of a three-dimensional coordinate system to locate small targets inside the body and to perform on them some action such as ablation, biopsy, lesion, injection, stimulation, implantation, radiosurgery (SRS), etc.
This compelled Leksell to consider other radiation sources and he started designing the cobalt-60 gamma unit, which was fully integrated with the stereotactic system. The development of the ‘‘beam-knife’’ took place after Leksell had been appointed successor to Olivecrona in 1960 and the first unit was inaugurated in 1967.
The facility is based in the Balestier Road-based ParkwayHealth Day Surgery & Medical Centre. [3] An independent medical centre, any member of the public, local or foreigner, is entitled to make use of it. [5] The centre promotes itself as "Asia's leading gamma knife centre" and "the only gamma knife facility in Singapore". [3]
Generally, single-session Gamma Knife radiosurgery is limited in use to VSs less than 3 cm in diameter to avoid possible complications with facial nerves, brainstem and the cochlea apparatus. [26] The risk of radiation-induced secondary tumors is very small, in the range of 0.01-0.02%. The risk for NF2 patients appears to be slightly higher.