How Gamma Knife Works

How Gamma Knife, Knifeless Surgery Works

Gamma Knife® surgery is a unique process that utilizes 201 extremely precise gamma beams to focus and treat a specific area in the brain. The patient wears a helmet-like device called a frame, which directs the beams to simultaneously merge at a single focal point. Sophisticatedly merged together with pinpoint precision, the beams work similar to a magnifying glass in the sun.

Detailed imaging, high-tech equipment and a specialized medical team work in conjunction. A 3-dimensional treat plan is tailor made and used to guide the procedure.

Gamma Knife surgery is silent and patients are fully awake and able to communicate with the physicians.

How it works:

Collimated beams of ionizing radiation emanating from 201 cobalt-60 sources converge on a single target within the cranium. Individually, the beams are weak and cannot damage healthy tissue, but at the point of intersection, they create a very powerful does of radiation to destroy the targeted abnormality.

The lesion gradually dissolves or shrinks and eventually disappears or exhibits no further growth.

Complex lesion shapes can be treated with multiple exposures and by the application of different sized beams.