What is Gamma Knife Surgery?

Gamma Knife surgery is a minimally invasive alternative to conventional brain surgery.  Considered the gold standard of radiosurgery technologies, this procedure allows safe and effective treatment for many types of intracranial tumors and vascular malformations.  By using radiation sources with the aid of sophisticated dose planning software, the Gamma Knife can often treat conditions once considered inoperable.  The Gamma Knife delivers ionizing gamma radiation that converges on and destroys tumor cells and abnormal blood vessels, such as arteriovenous malformations (AVMsa).

Additional Advantages of Gamma Knife Surgery:

Gamma Knife surgery is safer than traditional surgical techniques and typically has fewer side effects.  As a result, patients require minimal or no hospitalization, recovery and rehabilitation time.  Gamma Knife surgery is relatively pain free, which is due to its minimally invasive technique.  Perhaps most importantly, it is successful, as demonstrated by 30 years of clinical success in which over 200,000 have benefited from Gamma Knife surgery.

Neurogurgical diseases treated with the Gamma Knife include metastatic brain tumors, meningiomas, acoustic neuromas, some gliomas, AVMs, other vascular anomalies, and trigeminal neuralgia.

State of the Art Facility:

The Washington Brain & Spine Institute surgeons perform Gamma Knife procedures at the Washington Hospital Center's Neuroscience Institute.  It is the only Gamma Knife in the Washington D.C. metropolitan region.

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