How To Prepare For Gamma Knife Surgery

How To Prepare For Gamma Knife Surgery

The advances that Gamma Knife Treatment represents have been very well documented. Its capacity to tackle brain cancer tumours, save lives and avoid the long-term rehab involved with invasive surgery is well-established. 

All that is extremely good news if you are a cancer patient. It may mean at the very least that time is added to your life, or even that the treatment will ensure you are still here many years from now. The question is, how should you prepare for such an operation?

The first thing to note is the fact that this is a safe form of surgery. It’s not one of those dreaded operations where its touch and go that you’ll wake up from it, which can happen in other cases. 

This means you won’t have to make the kind of provisional preparations some will have to undertake, such as writing various ‘goodbye’ letters in case it doesn’t work out or making other practical arrangements. While it always makes sense to have a will anyway, the urgency of doing things – and the fear involved – need not be there. 

A second element of the operation is the fact that, because it is non-invasive but uses radio waves, it is rare that you will even need to stay in hospital overnight. The reason for this lies in the design of a gamma knife. It focuses the beams of gamma radiation with such precision that any spot on the brain outside the area being operated on receives very little radiation. 

The best aspect of it all is that this means you can plan ahead for the days beyond. Because it is unlikely you will be in hospital for long, you can make your plans for a post-op meal or family gathering, with hope and optimism that the future will be so much brighter.

What is a Gamma Knife

Gamma knife surgery: About the operation | Private Healthcare UK

Centres of Excellence for Stereotactic Radiosurgery treatment of complex Brain Tumours