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Great-Grandmother Undergoes Brain Surgery From
Outside Skull
She is 5000th patient treated by Lars Leksell Gamma
Knife at University of Virginia
 Aug.
6, 2005 A 75-year-old woman with 24 great-grandchildren, Macel Morris
of Charleston, W. Va., became the 5000th patient to undergo Gamma Knife
treatment at the Lars Leksell Gamma Knife center at the University of
Virginia Health System. The Gamma Knife allows neurosurgeons to operate
on the brain without actually entering the skull, preserving brain
function and allowing for a faster recovery without pain or trauma, say
the surgeons.
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About the Gamma Knife |
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What is the
Gamma Knife?
The Gamma Knife is a neurosurgical
instrument that allows a surgeon to perform brain surgery
without a scalpel or actually entering the skull. This way there
is little damage to the brain and as much function as possible
can be preserved. This form of non-invasive surgery -- also
known as radiosurgery -- uses 201 highly focused beams of Cobalt
60 Radiation to produce biological effects on tissues inside the
intact skull. The treatment is done in a single sitting and
therefore also has the benefit of shorter hospital stays and
less side effects.
Who developed the Gamma Knife
The concept of the Gamma Knife began in 1949
with Professor Lars Leksell's center of arc principle, whereby
any intracranial target could be reached from any point around
the convexity of the skull. Dr. Leksell recognized the need for
a tool to allow for the treatment of deep-seated lesions in the
brain without entering the skull and the hazards of open
surgery. He envisioned a deep-seated intracranial target being
irradiated by multiple beams of externally applied ionizing
irradiation without opening the skull, hence without the risks
of open surgery such as hemorrhage, infection, and cerebral
spinal fluid leakage.
Following extensive experimental and clinical research, Dr.
Leksell developed the first Gamma Knife in 1967 at the
Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
When UVa obtained it's first Gamma Knife, it
was the fifth in the world and the second in the United States.
There are now more than 140 units around the world and more than
60 in North America.
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This form of minimally invasive surgery, called
radiosurgery, uses 201 precisely-focused beams of cobalt 60 radiation to
target brain lesions, producing a powerful biological effect on abnormal
brain tissue. The beams are focused through a helmet-like device worn by
the patient.
Morris underwent Gamma Knife treatment for a rare,
aggressive melanoma tumor close to her right optic nerve that was
pressing on her eye and brain. Her treatment lasted about one hour, and
she was back in her hospital bed shortly afterward, feeling a little
tired but joking and visiting with her daughter and granddaughter.
Getting mad is a waste of energy, Morris said. I
trust in God and will get through this cancer with his help. Morris has
10 children, 23 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren and enjoys
working in her vegetable and flower gardens.
The Gamma Knife gives Ms. Morris the very best
treatment for her type of tumor, said Dr. Jason Sheehan, associate
director of UVas Gamma Knife center, who performed the procedure.
Because of the tumors location, she was not a candidate for open
surgery or conventional radiation therapy. The success rate for the
type of tumor Morris has is about ninety percent with the Gamma Knife,
Sheehan said, but it will take several months of tests to see if her
treatment eradicated or shrank the tumor.
UVa is proud to have one of the most successful
Gamma Knife programs in the United States. For patients and their
families, experience means fewer complications and better technical
success, said Dr Neal Kassell, professor and co-chair of neurosurgery
at UVa.
UVas Gamma Knife was installed in March 1989 and
is now on its second generation. The original instrument was the second
in the U.S. and the fifth in the world. UVa neurosurgeon and director of
the Gamma Knife center, Dr. Ladislau Steiner, was involved from the
beginning in the development of the original Gamma Knife and its
clinical application.
Patients have come to UVa for Gamma Knife surgery
from almost every state and 52 foreign countries. In the Commonwealth,
more than 2,300 Virginia residents have been treated, with the majority
of patients coming from Fairfax County, Charlottesville-Albemarle,
Richmond, Roanoke, Alexandria, Lynchburg and the Tidewater region.
Typical medical conditions treated by the instrument are arteriovenous
malformations (AVMs), brain tumors and functional disorders, such as
trigeminal neuralgia and epilepsy.
The University of Virginia Gamma Knife center is
the only institution in the U.S. to offer an accredited advanced
radiosurgical training course for physicians. Forty-seven neurosurgeons
from the U.S. and around the world have received their Gamma Knife
training at UVa, some from Japan, Brazil, Taiwan, Nigeria and Saudi
Arabia. Steiner, Kassell, and Sheehan also have helped to dramatically
shape the field of stereotactic radiosurgery through numerous
peer-reviewed publications, presentations, and research.
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