A lot of people think that gamma is a knife, but this is not the case but it is a machine that goes on to direct around 192 beams of light on the tumours that are present in the brain. The conventional risks along with the physical trauma of any surgery are removed with the help of this surgery.
The Preparations Before The Surgery
There are some pointers that you would need to keep in mind before you opt for the gamma knife surgery
- Before a couple of days of the surgery the patient needs to pay a visit to the hospital and have a meeting with the doctors who are going to perform the procedure. An oncologist and a neurosurgeon will also be part of the meeting
- The step would be to fit in the gamma helmet or as one may call is the head frame. This should be held on to the head until and unless the tumour is imaged followed by mapping by an MRI scan. With the aid of a 3 D model stimulator it is easy to download the images as well.
- The doctor is going to record the medical history of the patient, followed by a physical examination and the consent of a patient to be part of this procedure
- It is observed that during the course of your surgery, the doctor is going to play an active role in monitoring your health condition on whether the most active form of treatment has been provided and the progress of the patient is found out as well.
The Procedures
During this course of procedure you would need the view point of several specialists and the services of a trained nurse is needed as well.
- To minimize the degree of discomfort, the patient is provided something to relax. This is followed by a scenario where the metal frame is put around the head of the patient. As the head frame happens to the fixed or in a way rigid, the lesion could be plotted with a lot of precision using the MRI or CT scan.
- With the aid of a three dimensional software a detailed treatment plan is being prepared.
- Once these images are studied the doctor is in a better position to figure out the abnormality and then focus should be on the gamma rays before radiation does take place.
- The head is going to be fixed when the session takes place and around 192 radiation beams are going to be incorporated on to the target. In fact the size of the focal points could be adjusted and if the need presents multiple focal points in terms of higher levels of radiation could be provided as well. Any type of tumour of any size could be targeted at this point of time as well.
It is observed that gamma knife for brain treatment in India has been one of the latest discoveries and the surgeons are rated to be the best in the business as well.