Equipment/procedure/treatment evaluation project

Equipment/procedure/treatment evaluation project

Introduction

The machine known as the Gamma Knife is an invention of Professor Lars Lexel (Lars Leksell), who was a professor at Karolinska Hospital from 1960 to 1974. He was a very resourceful man and made ??many significant inventions. One of his great interests was how can tumors be treated which are located deep in brain that cannot be excised with usual surgery (Chin, Lazio, Biggins & Amin, 2000). The principle underlying the Gamma Knife is focusing a beam of gamma ray beams toward a common goal. Practically, this is done by assembling a large number of Cobalt 60 which produces gamma rays. A reduction in the radiation from the elements of cobalt can be done to produce only a thin beam, and the cobalt is assembled into a hemisphere so that the rays are directed toward the center of the hemisphere.

The next step is to place the head in the hemisphere so that the focal point of the beam reaches the tumor or vascular malformation to be subjected to radiation. This can be achieved by placing the head of a stereotactic frame, consisting of a square in which the neck is entered. From the four corners of the square begin four poles (Chin, Lazio, Biggins & Amin, 2000). At top of these columns there is a screw hole. Once local sedation is given, this framework is mounted on skull passing a screw through the hole, through the anesthetized skin and slightly into the bone of the skull (Stafford et. al, 2001). This process is the most unpleasant during treatment with Gamma Knife. 

Once the framework is mounted on the head, an MRI or X-ray scan can be taken. This test can determine how the volume is established relative to the frame. Once this scan is done, the patient returns, radiographs are transferred to a ...