Who can be treated with Gamma Knife?

The patients with brain tumoral lesions located in critical areas, or which are of difficult access, and are not larger than 3,5 cm diameter; patients with arterovenous malformations whose location transforms the microsurgical performance into a risky procedure; patients who, due to an advanced age or medical concomitant ailments, have surgical interventions proscribed; as a surgery coadjutant in partial tumor recessions; in functional surgery to treat the trigeminal neuralgia, and patients with malignant metatastic brain tumors.

Indications are expanding every day, since new treatment and research protocols open new therapeutic horizons.

Arteriovenous Malformations
Several studies indicate that radiosurgery with gamma-ray bistoury has a high clinical efficience, and a significative reduction of morbility can be achieved, when compared with microsurgery treating the arterovenous malformations.

This technique is used in patients with small and medium-sized arterovenous malformations at all brain locations. But it probably has a more important roll handling arterovenous malformations located in critical areas of the brain.

The objective of radiosurgery is achieving a complete closing of the vascular network with progressive thickening of the vascular walls until the lumen becomes occluded. A latency period of 1 to 3 years is usually necessary before the total closing occurs.

It is a non-invasive and effective method to treat arteriovenous malformations of levels I, II, and III, according to Martin-Spetzler's scale.

Acoustic Neurinomata
The objective of radiosurgery when treating the acoustic neurinomata is obtaining the tumoral control, and the preservation of the cranial pairs' functions.

Realized studies show that the percentage of tumoral control is higger than 94%, with a high preservation of the auditive, facial, and trigeminal functions. Tumoral control means stabilizing or reducing the size of tumor after the treatment.

Meningiomata
The stereotactic radiosurgery using the gamma-ray bistoury is excellent for the primary or complementary treatment of meningiomata located at the intracerebral areas of difficult access.

Stereotactic radiosurgery is applied with an extraordinary precision for the intracranial meningiomata, since these tumors are usually very well demarcated and they rarely attack the brain.

It is associated with a high percentage of long-term tumoral control, and an important reduction of the surgical risks. The tumoral cotrol of meningiomata is higher than 95%.

Cerebral Metastasis
Excellent results have been issued in relation to the reduction or disparition of metastatic tumors as a result of using the gamma-ray bistoury, even in those tumors tradiotionally regarded as radioresistant.

Radiosurgery provides a tumoral control percentage exceeding 89%.

Pituitary Tumors
For those patients who do not require a decompression of the optical apparatus, stereotactic radiosurgery using Gamma Knife represents an effective option.

It has a great application as a coadjutant therapy for small, residual, or recurrent pituitary adenomata after the microsurgery.

Gliomata
Radiosurgery has been used to handle in a multidisciplinary way those patients suffering from gliomatic tumoral lesions. It is an alternative method providing a dose of local radiation reinforcement.

Radiosurgery is used for those patients with malignant gliomatic tumors of a diameter smaller than 4,0 cm, together with other treatment modalities, such as chemiotherapy and fractional radiotherapy.

Tumors at the base of the cranium
Neurosurgery with the gama-ray bistoury is the best of the minimally-invasive sugery techniques. In the case of tumors at the base of the cranium reaches a high percentage of tumoral control, with a high preservation of the involved healthy structures' function; this is due to the perfect delimitation of the tumoral lesion, the respect of the healthy adjacent zones, and the non-invasivity.

Such tumors include malignant ones from the cranial base, invasive ones down from the neck, such as the nasopharyngeal carcinomata, and other adenocarcinomata or scaly cell carcinomata from the pharynx or the salivary glands, chordomata, chondrosarcomata, etc.

Trigeminal Neuralgy
The gamma-ray bistoury has a successful application treating the typical painful tic, obtaining an important pain-freeing and few damage of the facial sensibility.

In cases of trigeminal neuralgia resistant to medical or surgical treatment, and in the cases of aged patients or suffering from medical problems, radiosurgery with Gamma Knife has an extraordinary value.

We invite you to watch the procedure in a more detailed way. ( We recommend you installing the Flash 3 plug-in or higher into your navigator)