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About Bangkok Hospital Neurosurgical Gamma Center :
Mediseekers works with The Bangkok Hospital Neurological Gamma Cente which is home to Thailand ’s first and only Gamma Knife. Found at only 210 hospitals worldwide, the Gamma Knife is a technological innovation that allows for safer and more effective treatment of neurological diseases. The Gamma knife can be used to treat Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, benign cancerous tumours and vasculour malformations in the brain.
What is Gamma Knife Surgery?
The Gamma Knife isn’t really a knife at all; it is a completely non-invasive instrument that uses 201 finely focused beams of intersecting gamma radiation to treat tumours and vascular malformations in the brain. The Cobalt-60 generated beams are delivered through holes in a device surrounding the patient’s head called a collimator helmet. All 201 beams precisely intersect at a single point, and it is only at the point of intersection that the radiation is intense enough to affect the diseased tissue. Because of the procedure’s extreme accuracy, nearby tissue is not adversely affected by the radiation.
The Gamma Knife’s effectiveness is enhanced by using it in conjunction with 3-D imaging produced from X-rays ( CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging ( MRI). These imaging procedures enable surgeons and technicians to pinpoint problem areas in the brain prior to using the Gamma Knife.
What are the Advantages of Gamma Knife Surgery?
Gamma Knife procedures have several advantages over conventional surgery techniques. They are:
Gamma Knife surgery requires no incisions. As a result, the procedure poses no risk of infection, involves little or no pain, and leads to faster recovery.
- No general anaesthesia is required and patients are conscious during the entire procedure.
- Patients spend a maximum of two days in the hospital, compared with 20 or more days in cases of conventional surgery.
- The precision is so high and definite, that it is possible to treat lesions as small as one to two millimetres in diameter.
- Treatment with a beam of radiation can reach almost any area, including those deep within the brain that are not accessible with conventional surgery.
- Gamma Knife surgery doesn’t harm the scalp, hair or surrounding tissues. There is no need to shave the scalp prior to a Gamma Knife procedure.
- The time required for Gamma Knife surgery is far less than that required for conventional surgery.
- Gamma Knife procedures are less expensive than conventional surgery.
What can Gamma Knife Surgery treat?
There are several conditions for which the Gamma Knife is an effective treatment. Some of the most important are:
- Malignant and benign tumours of the skull and the skull base, including acoustic neuromas, pituitary adenomas, pinealomas, craniopharyngiomas, meningiomas, chordomas, chondrosarcomas, metastases and glial tumours.
- Arteriovenous malformations (AVM’s) are clusters of poorly developed blood vessels that are susceptible to rupture and bleeding. When they can’t be removed surgically, they are frequently treated with a Gamma Knife.
- Pain conditions like the intense facial pain created by trigeminal neuralgia can be treated with a Gamma Knife.
- The Gamma Knife is being increasingly used to treat movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, essential tremors, and epilepsyin instances where conventional treatment proves unresponsive.
How does the Gamma Knife work?
The Gamma Knife works in different ways, depending upon the condition being treated.
In the case of both benign and cancerous tumours, the dose of radiation provided by the Gamma Knife affects the DNA of the tumour cells treated, causing them to lose their ability to reproduce. Over a time, this treatment causes many tumours to cease growing and decrease in size.
Arteriovenous malformations (AVM’s) will often thicken and close off after treatment with Gamma Knife radiation. Over a period of time, they will frequently diminish in size. In the case of functional disorders like trigeminal neuralgia, radiation is used to create a lesion on the nerve that blocks pain-causing impulses being sent to the brain.
Treatment for movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, involves using the Gamma Knife’s intense beam to destroy the globus pallidus, the area of the brain causing the problem. In the case of essential tremors, a part of the thalamus is destroyed, blocking impulses being sent to the muscles that cause the tremor.
What Should I Expect During Gamma Knife Surgery?
When you arrive at the hospital, you will be fitted with a stereotactic head frame that is attached to your skull with four pins. A local anaesthetic is used so you will not suffer any pain from the attachment process.
The stereotactic frame will then be attached to equipment that will allow a CT scan or MRI to precisely pinpoint the centre of your physical problem by creating a three-dimensional image. At this time you might also be given a cerebral angiogram to provide the surgical team with a clear image of the blood vessels in your brain.
The information obtained from the imaging devices will be loaded into a computer to generate a treatment plan. Radiation dosage will then be precisely calculated.
You will then be taken to the room with the Gamma Knife for treatment. The stereotactic frame will be attached to a helmet with hundreds of holes designed to direct the radiation beams to the area to be treated. The radiation process will then begin, which usually takes between 30 and 120 minutes.
After the treatment, the pins and head frame will be removed and dressings applied to where the pins were located. Side effects sometimes include a mild headache and/or nausea. Most patients are released from the hospital on the same day.
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