Article Overview

About Gamma Knife Surgery

How does Gamma Knife radio surgery work?

Why Gamma Knife Surgery is done?

What you can expect from Gamma Knife Surgery?

Best hospital for Gamma Knife Surgery in India? Cost of Gamma knife Surgery in India?

Cost comparison of Gamma knife Surgery in India to other countries?

Medical Tourism in India

How to get medical visa to India



Gamma Knife Surgery in India

The most preferred radio surgery diagnosis for brain tumors, malformations and brain dysfunctions is Gamma Knife Surgery. As the name shows, the Gamma Knife is actually not a knife, but a machine that directs 192 beams of highly focused cobalt gamma radiation to destroy brain tumors and dysfunctions.

The physical trauma and the majority of risks associated with conventional surgery for brain tumors can be removed by Gamma Knife Surgery. Gamma knife is proved to be very beneficial in diagnosing many conditions which were considered to be non-treatable.

In Gamma Knife surgery, specialized equipment focuses close to 200 tiny beams of radiation on a tumor or other target. However, each beam has very little effect on the brain tissue as it passes through a strong dose of radiation is delivered to the site where all the beams meet.

The precision of Gamma Knife surgery results in minimal damage to healthy tissues surrounding the target. In some cases, Gamma Knife surgery may have a lower risk of side effects compared with other types of radiation therapy. Also, Gamma Knife surgery is often a safer option than is traditional brain surgery.

Gamma knife surgery is a non-invasive treatment for treating brain diseases. Gamma knife surgery is surgery without opening of the skull and uses gamma rays to destroy lesions in the brain. The gamma rays are precisely aimed in such a way that maximum concentration of radiation is directed at the diseased part of the brain while the surrounding tissue remains unharmed. Gamma Knife is the only feasible treatment modality in several neurosurgical cases.

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Gamma Knife surgery is called "surgery" because a result that can be similar to an actual surgical procedure is created by a one-session radiation therapy treatment. The beams of radiation are very specifically focused to reach the tumor, lesion, or other area being treated with minimal effect on surrounding healthy tissue.

Gamma Knife surgery is usually a one-time therapy completed in a single day.

The Gamma knife technique was invented by a Swedish neurosurgeon, Professor Lars Leksell and provides an alternative method of treatment for a number of conditions, for which open neurosurgery may be either not practicable or carry a high risk of complications.

Gamma Knife surgery requires the expertise of several specialists, including a physicist, a neurosurgeon, a radiation oncologist, an anesthesiologist (for children and patients with special problems) and a specially trained registered nurse. When Gamma knife surgery is complete, the head frame will be removed.

You might have to lie quietly for several more hours if you had an angiogram. Some patients feel mild headache or minor swelling where the head frame was attached, but most of the people report no problems at all.

Conditions Treated with Gamma Knife Surgery:

Gamma knife is very beneficial in treating many conditions which were considered to be non-treatable. Some of the conditions that can be treated from Gamma knife are as follows:

Small intracranial AVMs (Arteriovenous Malformation, an artery and vein that have not formed properly) or cavernous angiomas (not greater than 4 cm) Benign tumors meningiomas Tumors located at the base of the skull in the pineal region Metastatic brain lesions Trigeminal Neuralgia Parkinson's disease movement disorders Medically intractable epilepsy Intractable pain in patients with disseminated cancer Especially significant, Gamma Knife treatment has helped patients with tumors once deemed inoperable due to location patients considered at high risk for conventional surgery due to medical condition patients with tumors recurrent after surgery and/or radiation therapy

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How does Gamma Knife radio surgery work?

Gamma knife Radio surgery works in the same manner as other types of therapeutic radiology: it distorts or destroys the DNA of tumor cells, causing them to be unable to reproduce and grow.

Gamma Knife treatment generally involves these steps:

head frame placement

In order to keep the head from moving during treatment, a box-shaped frame is attached to the head. Pins designed specifically for this purpose fasten the head frame to the skull.

tumor or lesion location imaging

Once the head frame is in place, the exact location of the lesion to be treated will be determined using computed tomography (CT scan) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

radiation dose planning

After the CT or MRI scan has been completed, the radiation therapy team will determine the treatment plan. The results of the imaging scan, along with other information, will be used by a medical physicist to determine the best treatment.

radiation treatment

After being positioned for the treatment, a type of helmet with many hundreds of holes in it is placed over the head frame. These holes help to focus the radiation beams on the target. Treatment will last a few minutes up to a few hours, depending on the type and location of the area being treated. Generally, only one treatment session is required for a lesion.

A Gamma Knife procedure involves a treatment team approach. The treatment team generally includes a radiation oncologist (a physician specializing in radiation treatment for cancer), a neurosurgeon and/or a neuro radiologist, a radiation therapist, and a registered nurse. In addition, a medical physicist and a dosimetrist work together to calculate the precise number of exposures and beam placement necessary to obtain the radiation dose that is prescribed by the radiation oncologist. Your treatment team may include other healthcare professionals in addition to or in place of those listed here.

The Gamma Knife system is one of three types of radio surgery systems. Gamma Knife systems are cobalt 60 systems, which means they use cobalt as a source for gamma rays. During Gamma Knife treatment, the equipment remains stationary (does not move).

Two other types of radio surgery are:

linear accelerator (LINAC) systems

Linear accelerator (LINAC) systems use high energy x-rays to treat a tumor. Some general types of LINAC systems include CyberKnife, X-Knife, Novalis, and Peacock. In addition to using x-rays rather than gamma rays, LINAC systems also differ from the Gamma Knife in that the machinery moves around the patient during treatment. For this reason, Linear accelerator (LINAC) systems are able to treat larger tumors and larger affected areas than the Gamma Knife. Areas other than the brain can be treated with a LINAC system.

proton beam therapy or cyclotron

Proton beam therapy is a type of particle beam radiation therapy. Rather than using rays of radiation, such as gamma rays or x-rays, particle beam therapy uses particles such as protons or neutrons. Proton beam therapy is the most widely-used type of particle beam therapy. Proton beam therapy may be used for radio surgery procedures or for fractionated radiotherapy (several smaller doses of radiation over a certain period of time). There are only a few facilities in North America that provide proton beam therapy.

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Why Gamma Knife Surgery is done?

Gamma Knife radio surgery is often an appropriate alternative to standard brain surgery (neurosurgery), which requires incisions in the skull, membranes surrounding the brain and brain tissue. Gamma Knife radio surgery is usually performed when:

A tumor or other abnormality in the brain is too hard to reach with standard neurosurgery

A person is not healthy enough to undergo normal surgery

A person chooses a less invasive treatment

Gamma Knife surgery is most commonly used to treat the following conditions:

Brain tumor

Gamma knife radio surgery is useful in the management of small non-cancerous (benign) and cancerous (malignant) brain tumors.

Gamma knife Radio surgery damages the genetic material (DNA) in the tumor's cells. The cells lose their ability to reproduce and may die, and the tumor may gradually shrink.

Arteriovenous malformation (AVM)

Arteriovenous malformations are abnormal tangles of arteries and veins in the brain. In an Arteriovenous malformation, blood flows from arteries to veins, bypassing smaller blood vessels (capillaries). Arteriovenous malformations may disrupt the normal flow of blood and lead to bleeding.

Gamma knife Radio surgery destroys the Arteriovenous malformations and causes the blood vessels to close off over time.

Trigeminal neuralgia

Trigeminal neuralgia is a disease of one or both of the trigeminal nerves, which relay sensory information between human brain and areas of forehead, cheek and lower jaw. This nerve dysfunction causes disabling facial pain that feels like an electric shock.

After treatment, many people will experience pain relief within a few days to a few months.

Acoustic neuroma

An acoustic neuroma (vestibular schwannoma), is a non-cancerous (benign) tumor that develops along the main balance and hearing nerve leading from your inner ear to your brain.

When the tumor puts pressure on the nerve, a person can experience hearing loss, dizziness, loss of balance and ringing in the ear (tinnitus). As the tumor grows, it can also put pressure on the nerves affecting sensations and muscle movement in the face.

Gamma knife surgery may stop the growth or minimize the size of an acoustic neuroma with little risk of permanent nerve damage.

Pituitary tumors

Tumors of the bean-sized gland at the base of the brain (pituitary gland) can cause a variety of problems. The pituitary gland controls hormones in your body that control various functions, such as your stress response, metabolism and sexual function.

Gamma knife surgery can be used to lower down the tumor and lessen the disruption of pituitary hormone regulation.

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What you can expect from Gamma Knife Surgery?

Gamma Knife radio surgery is usually an outpatient procedure, but the entire process will take most of a day. You may be advised to have a family member or friend who can be with you during the day and who can take you home. In some cases, an overnight stay in the hospital may be necessary.

You'll have an intravenous (IV) line, a tube that delivers fluids to your bloodstream to keep you hydrated during the day. A needle at the end of the IV is placed in a vein, most likely in your arm.

Before the Gamma Knife Surgery

Before the Gamma Knife surgery begins, you'll have a light weight frame attached to your head with four pins. This frame will stabilize your head during the radiation treatment and serve as a point of reference for focusing the beams of radiation. During this process:

None of your hair will be shaved

You will receive numbing shots in the four places on your scalp where the pins will be inserted - two points on your forehead and two at the back of your head

After the head frame is attached, you'll undergo imaging scans of your brain that show the location of the tumor or other abnormality in relation to the head frame.

During Gamma Knife Surgery

You have to lie on a bed that slides into the Gamma Knife machine, and your head frame will be attached securely to a helmet inside the machine. The Gamma Knife Surgery may take less than an hour to about four hours, depending on the size and shape of the target. During Gamma Knife surgery:

You won't feel the radiation.

You won't hear any noise from the machine.

You'll be able to talk with the doctors via a microphone.

After Gamma Knife Surgery

After Gamma Knife Surgery, you can expect the following:

The head frame will be removed.

You may have minor bleeding or tenderness at the pin sites.

If headache

You'll be able to eat and drink after gamma knife surgery.

Medical Tourism in India

Medical Tourism is a means of linking patients to high class medical, cardiac and neurosurgery facilities overseas. India is a leading destination for medical tourism, and people from all over the world are looking to visit India for their medical requirements.

Medical Tourism engages travelling abroad to get high class medical treatment at very economical rates, as compared to countries like US, UK and Australia. As a result of which, we can see a gradual increment in Indian medical tourism with each passing day.

Imagine a difficult surgical procedure done in a high class hospital by experienced doctors at a very low price what it usually takes. That's India for you. From the high quality of treatment, huge range of procedures, buildings and talented doctors to perform any medical procedure with no waiting time, the list of benefits of travelling for medical treatment in India are many.

Lazoi is an online healthcare portal in India where the patients can book doctor's appointments irrespective of their location. We are having best Radiation oncologists in India who always remains ready to work for the welfare of the patients.

The treatment of domestic patients can be done across all over India they have the freedom to choose the location to have their treatment done. The international patients are provided with medical care in the metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and many more.

The amount of care and quality they get is what attracts people. But, the services provided to the patients should not be excess than the patient's affordability. If quality comes at an affordable cost, it is an unbeatable advantage.

We are linked with numerous JCI-accredited hospitals that are known to offer the best and the efficient healthcare services. International patients can get the benefit of having affordable medical treatments in India along with the use of state of the art technology, treatment at trusted hospitals, quality infrastructure and special personalized care.

If you are an international patient and you had gone through medical treatment in India, you will get the facility of having a second opinion from the doctor in the mode as you like. You can ask an online query, get tele-consultation with the doctor or you can have an online video consultation. This further helps in saving the travel time of the international patients.

Lazoi acts as a bridge and provide numerous facilities to the patients as well as the doctors. This can be very beneficial as patients do not have the access of direct contact with doctors. Lazoi is a formal and a high reputed organization which is trusted by many. Beware of misguiding agents which further can harm you and may also take huge amount of money.

Which is the best hospital for Gamma Knife Surgery in India?

Medanta - The Medicity is the best hospital for Gamma Knife Surgery in India.

What is the cost of Gamma knife Surgery in India?

Cost of Gamma Knife Surgery in India is very less as compared to the other countries. The cost of Gamma Knife Radio Surgery in India will be approx Rs. 2 Lakhs.

What is the cost comparison of Gamma knife Surgery in India to other countries?

Cost of Gamma Knife Surgery in USA will cost around Rs. 4 Lakhs ($6,000).

Cost of Gamma Knife Surgery in UK will cost around Rs. 4 Lakhs ($6,000).

Cost of Gamma Knife Surgery in India will cost around Rs. 2 Lakhs ($3,000).

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