Non-Invasive Technique Lets Doctors Painlessly Treat Brain Afflictions (NAPS)—A proven medical device considered by many physi- ans Tp Ae a cians to be on the cutting edge of process—this may help doctors technology, has helped to eliminate almost all of the complications often associated with brain surgery. treat dysfunctions before they become major medical problems. The actual treatment proce- dure involves attaching a lightweight frame to the patient’s The device, known as the Gamma Knife, is a radiosurgery head. This frame, which keeps the head immobile and helps target the problem site, is affixed to a system that uses high doses of radiation—delivered in the form of up to 201 converging beams—to helmet which contains 201 tiny painlessly treat lesions deep holes. The helmet’s holes can be plugged or unplugged by physicians to control where radiation meets the brain. within the brain. The technology has helped to change the face of brain surgery by letting doctors perform different types of deep brain procedures without actually making an incision in the patient’s head. Patients remain conscious during the entire procedure and can often go home the sameor following day. According to Doctor Thomas A. Gennarelli, Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, the ben- efits of the Gamma Knife are significant. “There’s virtually no chance of bleeding or infection A non-invasive medical procedure lets patients like Delores Poindexter return to their normal routine almost immediately after being treated for tumors or brain abnormalities. Poindexter from Milwaukee, Wisconsin was diagnosed with a small tumor in the fibrous tissues covering the brain’s surface. The tumor pressed against her optic nerve and inside the head.” was causing an increasing level of exact area in the brain that doc- Poindexter’s tumor was considered too small to operate on using conventional surgery without risk- The device uses three dimensional software to pinpoint the tors want to treat. The extreme precision with which the dose of radiation is applied minimizes damage to healthy adjacent nervesor tissue. “The surrounding tissue is not disturbed in any way, whereas in surgery, we have to risk moving healthy tissue in order to get to where a tumoris.” says Gennarelli, regarding GammaKnife treatment. The precise mapping technology lets doctors treat many conditions that would otherwise be untreatable using conventional surgery. For example, 52-year-old Delores effectively treat tumors like Poindexter’s early in the growth discomfort. ing injury to nearby nerves, and she was advised by doctors to wait for the tumorto grow larger before attempting to treat it. After consulting with Dr. Gennarelli, however, she learned that Gamma Knife technology could effectively treat her condition on the spot. “The device is a real tool for a tumorlike this that we couldn’t treat before,” explains Gennarelli. The extreme accuracy with which the knife’s radiation can be focused often allows experts to Patients lie on the Gamma Knife’s moving bed and, similarly to a CAT scan, are moved into the Gamma Knife machine. The treatmenttakes oneto five minutes and can be repeated any numberof times within onesession—a sharp contrast to cobalt or radiation treatments which often cannot be repeated within a close time period and can require months of ongoing treatments. Doctors are continually in contact with the patient through video andaudio feeds. For nearly three decades the technology has been used to suc- cessfully treat patients for a variety of conditions ranging from malignant or benign tumors, to functional disorders. The technology is used at more than 140 institutions worldwide and is recognized and covered by most health insurance companies. Some experts expect the treat- ment method’s success to lead to developmentsin other types of noninvasive surgeries. For more information on the Gamma Knife, includinga list of locations, consult your healthcare professional, or visit www.gammaknife.com or call 1-717-671-1701. io Courtesy: L. Steiner, MD, PhD; D Prasad, MD; UVA Charlottesville, USA. Instead of open-brain surgery, a 67-year-old woman is treated with the Gamma Knife for a brain tumor called a meningioma(circled). After one Gamma Knife session, the woman’s tumor began to dissolve. Two yearslater, it was completely gone.
