The Gamma Knife® is a powerful tool that enables the neurosurgeon to focus 201 beams of energy to any location inside the brain. By focusing the intersecting beams, the radiosurgery team can target a region of the brain while limiting exposure to surrounding, normal brain tissue.
Gamma Knife radiosurgery for epilepsy
While more commonly used to treat children with brain tumors and arteriovenous malformations, the Gamma Knife is also used to treat some patients with epilepsy. Indications include:
- Deep-seated hypothalamic hamartomas
- Certain epileptogenic lesions
- Functional disconnections such as corpus callosotomy
Gamma Knife radiosurgery: what to expect
- The Gamma Knife treatment is an outpatient procedure, performed non-invasively with no incisions.
- The treatment itself is quiet and painless, although placement of the reference frame on to the child’s head may require the involvement of the pediatric anesthesia team to assure the comfort of the child during all phases of treatment.
Targeting plan used to perform a posterior corpus callosotomy in a 10-year-old boy, using the Gamma Knife
Selected publications and abstracts from our faculty:
1. Radiosurgical posterior corpus callosotomy in a child with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. Case report.
Smyth MD, Klein EE, Dodson WE, Mansur DB.
J Neurosurg. 2007 Apr;106(4 Suppl):312-5.
