Patient Guide
Gamma Knife Treatment
You are now ready to be taken into the treatment room where you will be placed on the Gamma Knife bed and moved into the treatment position. While reclining on the Gamma Knife bed, your head will be fitted with a collimator helmet. Ports covering the helmet’s surface allow the designated amount of radiation prescribed by your neurosurgeon to be aimed at the target area. After you are properly aligned, the bed advances until your head is inside a shielded sphere, which contains the radiation sources. Your doctor and nurse will leave you in the room and move to the control area for your procedure. Throughout the treatment you can communicate with your team of specialists through visual monitoring and two-way voice communication. If you brought CDs or tapes, we can continue to play your favorite music.
Next, the Gamma Knife instrument delivers the prescribed dosage of radiation from as many as 201 cobalt-60 sources of approximately 30 Curies each, arrayed over the collimator helmet’s spherical surface. While each source or beam produces a small dose of radiation, it is where these beams intersect that radiation is delivered to treat tumors or malformations. You will hear clicking sounds as the Gamma Knife door opens and allows the precise amount of radiation through the opened helmet holes. You will not hear or feel the treatment as it is being performed. The actual Gamma Knife treatment usually lasts less than 45 minutes, with little patient discomfort.
Patient Guide
- What to expect during Gamma Knife treatment
- Attaching the stereotactic head frame
- Imaging
- Gamma Knife treatment planning
- Gamma Knife treatment
- Post Gamma Knife treatment
- How to Prepare Yourself for Gamma Knife Treatment
- Risks
- Scheduling
- Admissions
- Parking and Directions
View a printer-friendly version of the Memphis Regional Gamma Knife Center's complete Gamma Knife patient's guide.
