Continuity of Care Optimizing the Gamma Knifeî Brain Surgery PatientExperience

Copyright: © 2014 Vacsulka J, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Introduction Stereotactic radiosurgery using the Leksell Gamma Knife® (AB Elekta, Stockholm, Sweden), refers tonon-invasive brain surgery that is performed in a single outpatient procedure.This technology allows extremely precise focal radiation of intracranial targets and spares tissues adjacent to the target, using 192-201 photon beams generated from the decay of Cobalt 60 sources. Gamma Knife surgery represents a major advancement in brain surgery that now has a long track record of success. The first patient procedure was performed in Stockholm in 1967. Since then almost 1 million patients worldwide have undergone this procedure at more than 300 worldwide sites. Its development has enhanced neurosurgical options for patients with brain tumors, vascular malformations, and functional disorders such as pain, movement disorders, and epilepsy. More than 2000 publications now testify to the ability of Gamma knife surgery to provide a safe, accurate, and reliable treatment option. The Gamma Knife enables patients to undergo a non-invasive form of brain surgery without traditional surgical risks such as bleeding or infections, does not require a hospital stay, or subsequent rehabilitation.