Gamma Knife radiosurgery is a form of stereotactic radiosurgery that focuses about two hundred beams of cobalt-60 gamma radiation on a small target inside the brain, destroying diseased tissue without an incision. It was conceived in 1951 by the Swedish neurosurgeon Lars Leksell, who built the first working device with radiation biologist Borje Larsson in 1967, and completed a second unit in 1975 built specifically for treating brain tumors. The technique is used chiefly for brain tumors, but also for vascular malformations and other conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia that respond to precisely targeted radiation.
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StatusSourced to the subject's own account Origin YearSourced to the subject's own account Gamma Knife Radiosurgery
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FAQs
Is the Gamma Knife the only device used for stereotactic radiosurgery?
No. Linear accelerator systems such as the CyberKnife are also widely used.
No. The American Association of Neurological Surgeons describes the Gamma Knife and linear accelerator based systems, such as the CyberKnife and the X-Knife, as the most commonly used devices for delivering stereotactic radiosurgery. It says each of these systems has advantages and disadvantages, and that all of them use a radiation source to deliver a highly concentrated dose of radiation to a precise target.
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Source Radiosurgery (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Radiosurgery (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHistory section, Gamma Knife installed at Karolinska Institute
In 1968 this resulted in the Gamma Knife, which was installed at the Karolinska Institute and consisted of several cobalt-60 radioactive sources placed in a kind of helmet with central channels for irradiation with gamma rays.
- Clinical use status
Treats: Trigeminal Neuralgia, Lead (280515)
General indications for radiosurgery include many kinds of brain tumors, such as acoustic neuromas, germinomas, meningiomas, metastases, trigeminal neuralgia, arteriovenous malformations, and skull base tumors, among others.
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