hi can anyone explain how gamma knife treatment works do you get a blast of radiation or is it the same as radiosurgery
Here's the link my neurosurgeon's office gave me when I scheduled my first GK. (I've had two & have a 3rd scheduled in 3 weeks).
http://www.mhmni.com/gammaknife/?gclid=CMbQv4Kqg7ACFSKhtgodeALpkQ
I had gk 9 months ago today. I went in and they got me all set up with the frame on my head. Then I went for an MRI and then in for the angiogram. From there I went in for the actual gamma knife. My doctors told me that you can have more than one round of gk but that it can take 3years for gk to fully work. I had my 7 month check up and my AVM had shrunk 30-40% since the gk (not counting what it had shrunk from having 8 embolizations before gk). I will go back in 1 year for another MRI and checkup to see how things are going. If the doctors dont think it is shrinking enough they will schedule another round of gk. I was told that it is a beam of radiation right to the location (they put the frame on your head to make sure they get the exact location of where your avm is for the gk) of your avm. I hope this helps and isn't more confusing to you. Best of luck to you in your treatment
Gamma knife is a type of radiosurgery. The cool thing about gamma knife is that the doctors use over a hundred beams of radiation to target your AVM. One beam of radiation passing through healthy brain tissue will not kill the tissue, but where all of the radiation beams meet (in the AVM) the tissue is killed.