Lithuania is first of Baltic States to begin intracranial radiosurgery with Elekta’s Leksell Gamma Knife
KAUNAS, Lithuania, September 6, 2019 – Doctors at Kaunos Klinikos (Kaunas, Lithuania) have ushered in the era of advanced stereotactic intracranial radiosurgery in Lithuania and the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) as they have begun treating patients using their new Leksell Gamma Knife® Icon™. The sophisticated imaging and motion management technology in Icon enables doctors to precisely treat brain tumors and other cerebral disorders in a single or multiple sessions using either frame- or mask-based options. To date, Kaunos Klinikos has used its Icon system to treat 62 patients, an average of 6 per week.
“The first patient was a 56-year-old male patient with a skull-based recurrent meningioma that we were able to safely treat in five sessions using a thermoplastic mask to immobilize his head,” says Professor Arimantas Tamašauskas, MD, PhD and Head of Department of Neurosurgery. “On the same day we also treated a 78-year-old woman suffering from essential tremor. In this case, we used a frame-based option with Icon and delivered a very high (130 Gy) single dose.”
The third patient’s case highlighted the well-known benefits of Gamma Knife radiosurgery in treating multiple cerebral metastases (mets). “We were able to help this patient avoid whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT), using Icon to treat 25 mets,” Tamašauskas says. “The remaining two patients on our first day with Icon were treated for cavernous sinus meningioma.”
In just two months since Kaunos Klinikos began using Icon, it has compiled an impressive record: 62 patients treated in 82 treatment sessions and encompassing a broad spectrum of indications treated with Gamma Knife, including single and multiple metastases, meningiomas, essential tremor, ophthalmologic melanoma, arteriovenous malformation, vestibular schwannoma, and trigeminal neuralgia.
The introduction of Gamma Knife technology in the Baltic States is a major benefit, not only for the region, but for more distant countries, he adds. To date, over 1.2 million patients have been treated worldwide with Leksell Gamma Knife. In its first year of operation, Dr. Tamašauskas predicts Kaunos Klinikos will treat over 300 patients with Icon.
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