The advantages of Leksell Gamma Knife surgery

For doctors who employ conventional surgical techniques on brain tumors, risk assessment is a fact of life. They must wrestle with the knowledge that the same procedure designed to save a patient’s life exposes the patient to the risk of infection, hemorrhage, spinal fluid leakage, and adverse reaction to anesthesia.

For patients faced with the prospect of invasive brain surgery, the cost of the procedure and loss of income associated with long hospitalization and convalescence can become as large a burden as the tumor itself.

Leksell Gamma Knife, a non-invasive neurosurgical tool, offers a safe, reliable, and ultimately cost-effective alternative to standard surgical procedures for the treatment of certain types of brain tumors and vascular malformations.

The advantages of the Leksell Gamma Knife treatment are well known in the field of neurosurgery. As the most documented radio-surgical procedure in the world, it has proven its value time and again as a non-invasive neurosurgical tool.

It is used primarily as a treatment to benign tumors such as acoustic neuromas, meningiomas, pituitary adenomas, craniopharyngiomas, and similar tumors of the skull base and brain; malignant tumors; pain conditions like trigeminal neuralgia and movement disorders (tremors).

Recognized worldwide as the preferred treatment for such conditions because of its non-invasive nature, Leksell Gamma Knife does not require a surgical incision, thus eliminating the attendant risks of open neurosurgical procedures.

It also reduces the risk of surgical complications arising from the use of general anesthesia because adults need only a local anesthetic for the single session procedure.

Instead of surgical steel, 201 beams of gamma radiation are delivered with computer accuracy to precisely targeted lesions, which slowly shrink and dissolve over time.

This brief exposure to radiation affects only the tissue being treated while keeping surrounding brain tissue, adjacent nerves and blood vessels unharmed.

The process allows treatment for otherwise "inoperable" tumors located deep in the brain where open surgery would normally present considerable danger.

Non-invasive radiosurgical procedures are also particularly beneficial for patients who would otherwise not be able to handle the physical trauma of standard surgical techniques because of advanced age or illness.

Compared to traditional craniotomy and surgical resection, Leksell Gamma Knife is characterized by low costs.

The significant reduction of costs stems mostly from the shorter hospitalization of patients undergoing Gamma Knife treatment.

To illustrate, open surgery typically requires two to four days in intensive care followed by hospitalization for another two weeks and four to six weeks of convalescence before a patient resumes his or her pre-operative lifestyle.

In contrast, the non-invasive nature of Leksell Gamma Knife allows patients to be treated on an outpatient basis, with patients able to resume their normal lives as soon as they are discharged.

This means that patients not only avoid the costs inherent in hospitalization and protracted convalescence, they are also able to get back to their jobs immediately without having a significantly negative impact on their productivity.

The successful application of this procedure is nothing less than phenomenal. More than 80 percent of patients with metastatic brain tumors have experienced growth arrest, decrease in size or even complete eradication of lesions after undergoing just one session of Leksell Gamma Knife radiosurgery.

As a primary treatment for meningiomas, the procedure has resulted in the arrest of tumor enlargement or shrinkage of the tumor nearly 90 percent of the time.

Likewise, studies have consistently shown deep-seated tumors such as arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) to be completely obliterated in 88 percent of patients with AVMs smaller than four centimeters.

Whether as an alternative to standard neurosurgical operations or as an adjunctive therapy for treating residual or recurring lesions left unresected by more traditional surgery, Gamma Knife has opened up a world of options to both doctors and patients who previously had no other recourse than invasive surgical operations.

In the Philippines, the only Leksell Gamma Knife facility may be found at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center located at Wilson st., Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila where the Philippine Gamma Knife Center has successfully treated hundreds of cases since its inception in 1997.

For more information, call 725-9254 or 723-7575 or fax at 727-7653.