The University Health System anticipates installing the new Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion in early 2007 in the hopes of offering treatment to more neural patients. The University Health System is the first center in the country to install the $3.2 million knife.
The Perfexion will replace the current Leksell Gamma Knife that the University received in 1989.
Gamma knives are used to treat brain tumors and other neurological diseases through intense gamma radiation.
"The machine sends intersecting beams of radiation, and wherever the beams coincide, there is enough radiation to destroy any tissue that is there," said Neal Kassell, professor of neurosurgery in the University Health System.
Kassell, Ladislau Steiner and Jason Sheehan are the three neural surgeons from the University Gamma Knife Center who will be working with the Perfexion once it is installed next year. Steiner performed the first treatment using the original Leksell Gamma Knife the University received.
"Up to date we have treated 5,504 patients using the gamma knife, with increasing numbers every year," Steiner said.
Newer technology makes the Perfexion a much safer machine then the current gamma knife.
"The body of the patient will receive one hundred [percent] less radiation, which is very important, especially for children," said Steiner.
Along with the reduced radiation, the Perfexion also provides for a quicker surgery, allowing more patients to undergo this "faster, safer and more precise" treatment each year, Kassell said.
Elekta, an international medical-technology group, reports that there are currently 225 gamma knives in the world, with 105 located in the United States. The first of the new models was installed in Marseille, France, making the University the second center in the world to install this knife.
"[The University Gamma Knife Center is] known throughout the world as a luminary site for gamma ray surgery, and we were the second center in the United States to have the original gamma knife," Kassell said.
Steiner said he is unsure of how medical students will be involved with the Perfexion, but that the Center is "open to having the students working with us."
Sept. 19, the University will be hosting an advanced course for neural surgeons from throughout the U.S. concerning gamma knife procedures. The event will include one of the physicists involved in the Perfexion as a speaker.
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