The Patient Experience

Gamma Knife treatment is a popular option for many patients with brain abnormalities and is both noiseless and painless.

Gamma Knife treatment offers several advantages to traditional surgery including:

• No scarring – minimally invasive treatment. Gamma Knife treatment does not require lengthy surgery nor hospitalization. The majority of patients undergoing gamma knife treatment return home the very same day of treatment
• Few side effects – the outpatient nature of gamma knife treatment eliminates the need for incisions and the risk for infection. Additionally, the outpatient treatment also eliminates the need for general anesthesia. Gamma knife patients report little discomfort and few side effects
• Precision – the use of a frame placement to direct the gamma knife radiation beams, along with the use of the most sophisticated digital imaging, results in a exceptionally precise dose of powerful radiation treatment. This precise administration of powerful but pain-free radiation precisely targets the brain abnormality, sparing radiation exposure to other sensitive structures of the brain.
• Good outcomes – this precise form of treatment has been observed to result in significant improvement in functioning and reduction in tumor and other brain abnormalities.

What the patient should expect:

Patients coming to the Johns Hopkins Gamma Knife Center experience a six-step treatment process. The time to administer treatment varies significantly depending upon the patient's unique problem presentation. Overall, patients can expect the entire process to last between 4-12 hours.

The six-step process includes:

1. Preparation: Patients are encouraged to arrive very early in the morning and begin meeting with members of the gamma knife treatment team. The Gamma Knife radiation therapists and nurses take extensive measurements of the patient's head to ensure an ideal fitting of the frame and to plan the radiation treatment. A small amount of topical anesthesia is applied to the patient to prepare for the fitting of the treatment frame.
2. Frame placement: the neurosurgeon fits the frame used to direct the radiation from the gamma knife to the tumor or abnormality
3. Imaging: following the fitting of the frame, the patient is taken to a neuro-radiology imaging suite where high quality digital images are taken designed specially for the gamma knife treatment center. These images are then returned to the gamma knife treatment center to begin planning the application of the gamma knife treatment.
4. Planning: The high quality images, along with the patient head measurements taken earlier in the day, are returned to the physicians and dosimetrists in the gamma knife treatment center. The treatment team uses these images and measurements to begin the exhaustive planning of the gamma knife radiation treatment. Using specialized computers and software the digital images are superimposed to create a multi-dimension view of the targeted brain abnormality. The size, width and depth of the abnormality are reviewed and precise treatment instructions are programmed into the gamma knife treatment software.
5. Treatment: once the planning is completed, the actual treatment is relatively brief. The frame that is fitted to the patient is then attached to a special colometer. The colometer is a helmet containing the 201 spheres that emits the radiation bursts. The 201 spheres vary in diameter depending upon the treatment planning. The usual length of a treatment can be between 2 to 8 minutes in duration. There could be several treatments throughout the session, again depending on the specialized treatment plan developed by the physicians and treatment providers.
6. Discharge: After the radiation treatment is completed, the patient's frame is removed. The patient is monitored for 30-60 minutes to ensure that there are no significant side effects and then the patient is free to return home.