Miami Neuroscience Center, Gamma Knife

One of the most advanced Gamma Knife treatment centers in the world The Miami Neuroscience Center is the company's first Gamma Knife facility and the first in the State of Florida, and is recognized as one of the best programs in the nation. The Miami Neuroscience Center is currently the leading private provider of Gamma Knife radiosurgery treatment in the Southern United States. The Center treats more than 400 patients annually from the U.S. and other countries around the world. Since the program's inception, over 3,500 patients with brain tumors, lesions and functional disorders have been treated at the Miami Neuroscience Center. The Miami Neuroscience Center is not a teaching center and is integrated by a multidisciplinary team including a neurosurgeon, radiation oncologist, physicist, neuroradiologist and nurses, all of whom are highly credentialed experts with nationwide recognition and the highest level of training and professional experience. They are also caring people and have at their disposal the most advanced equipment and technology to help patients. PROCEDURES

Gamma Knife is the preeminent Gold Standard of brain radiosurgery backed by decades of well-documented success. A Gamma Knife brain radiosurgery procedure achieves the highest level of precision based on a design that is unmatched in its stability and simplicity. Brain radiosurgery is the delivery of a high dose of radiation to a target (e.g., brain tumor, arteriovenous malformation, trigeminal nerve... see list of treatments) while avoiding a significant dose to the normal brain surrounding the target. A single beam of radiation is invisible, cannot be felt, and deposits some of its energy along its pathway as it passes right through the brain. The fundamental principle of radiosurgery is to put each part of the target in the path of many more beams than any part of the surrounding normal brain. Traditional radiation therapy technologies use a single beam that is always aimed at the target but changes its pathway through the brain using either a continuous or stepwise motion. Moving a beam continuously aimed at the target changes the pathway to the target thus allowing the target to be hit more times than any point next to the target. Lars Leksell, the Swedish neurosurgeon who pioneered the field of radiosurgery, was dissatisfied with traditional radiation therapy single beam technologies and introduced the Gamma Knife as a radiosurgical tool. The Gamma Knife relies on a radically innovative concept that uses up to 201 beams simultaneously. None of the 201 Gamma Knife beams move (they can't move), thus making it a far simpler radiosurgical tool than any traditional single moving beam systems. The Gamma Knife treatment team has a significant advantage in being able to focus its attention on the patient's specific requirements without being concerned about whether the Gamma Knife treatment beams have moved out of position (they can't). Inside the Gamma Knife there is a permanently fixed point, the isocenter, where 201 treatment gamma beams intersect (they never move). A treatment gamma beam (a form of radiation) is invisible, cannot be felt, and it deposits over half of its energy along its pathway through the brain. When a treatment target inside the brain is positioned at the Gamma Knife isocenter, the treatment target will be in the path of all of the treatment beams and each point in the surrounding normal brain will be in the path of at most one gamma beam.

The diameter of these 201 permanent gamma beams at isocenter is determined by which of four collimator helmets is mounted on the treatment couch. These collimator helmets contain 201 beam ports and each helmet has a distinct beam port diameter (hole size) allowing beams to pass through before reaching the patient and the isocenter where all unblocked gamma beams intersect. The collimator helmet producing 4-millimeter beam diameters at isocenter is referred to as the 4 mm helmet. The three additional collimator helmets are the 8mm, 14mm and 18mm helmets. In general, a Gamma Knife treatment involves the use of one or more collimator helmets to ensure that each part of the treatment target will have been positioned inside at least one treatment isocenter. The number of treatment positions is dependent on both the size and shape of the treatment target. Use of a stereotactic head frame is the most effective and uncomplicated way to make sure that the treatment target stays in position during treatment. At the Miami Neuroscience Center a Gamma Knife patient's treatment day starts with the placement of the stereotactic head frame. Following head frame placement, MRI is most commonly used to image the treatment target position relative to the head frame. Treatment planning makes use of these images so that the head frame can be used to hold the patient's head (treatment target) in the required treatment positions. Treatment is followed by removal of the head frame. The average time for head frame placement, imaging, treatment planning, treatment and head frame removal is 5 hours 3 minutes. At the Miami Neuroscience Center, Gamma Knife targets are treated with a high dose single treatment approach. Because of the stability and accuracy of our Gamma Knife procedure, single fraction high doses are used even when targets are next to or inside critical brain structures such as the optic chiasm and brain stem.

Miami NeuroScience Center
5000 University Drive
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
Phone: +1.786.308 3701
Fax: +1.786.308 3701
E-Mail: info@miamineurosciencecenter.com