Radiosurgery:

Radiosurgery is a method used to treat certain brain tumours, certain vascular malformations and certain functional disorders of the brain.  It is an alternative or complementary technique to a neurosurgical operation and/or radiotherapy.

The radiosurgery is performed in a single session without anaesthesia nor surgical gesture.

 

Radiosurgery by Gamma Knife:

Radiosurgery by Gamma Knife is an advanced technique that combines multi-beam radiotherapy with stereotaxic neurosurgery.  The treatment consists of determining the precise location of the lesion to be treated, taking into account its shape and dimensions, and using these data to treat the lesion with gamma rays with very high precision. 

Gamma rays are emitted by 201 sources of Cobalt-60 arranged hemispherically round the head of the patient.  All these rates are concentrated on a focal point, where the sum of the rays determines the treatment dose.  The precision of this technique is such that there is practically no irradiation that can cause adverse effects to adjacent healthy brain structures.

Multi-beam radiotherapy:

This is an irradiation technique aimed at concentrating a large quantity of rays on a precise brain target from several emission sources. 

Stereotaxic neurosurgery:

Stereotaxic neurosurgery (or stereotaxy) is used to analyse or treat brain lesions once they have been located with high precision.  This technique requires the installation of a frame of reference called a “stereotaxic reference” from which the lesion is located in three dimensions (cf. stereotaxic frame and treatment planning).

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