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Contact: Rachel Quizon
949/764-5921
Southern California’s First Gamma Knife Perfexion
Provides Most Advanced Noninvasive Treatment System for Brain Disease at Hoag Hospital
New Gamma Knife Perfexion treats areas previously unreachable without surgical incision
February 25, 2008 - Newport Beach, CA: Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian announced that it is the first hospital in Southern California to install and utilize Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion™, the most advanced, noninvasive radiosurgical system for the treatment of brain disease. The Perfexion system replaces Hoag Hospital’s earlier generation Gamma Knife, and can treat a larger area of the brain with enhanced accuracy. Significantly more patients can now be treated with Gamma Knife instead of more invasive, riskier surgical procedures.
“Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion’s enhanced accuracy and expanded treatment area allow us to treat tumors that were unreachable with previous technology,” said Christopher Duma, MD, medical director of Hoag Brain Tumor Program, a program of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at Hoag Hospital. “This will give more patients the opportunity to avoid open skull surgery and its associated risks. Since the Gamma Knife does not require an incision, and, in most cases, is used with only mild sedation and a local anesthetic, patients are able to quickly resume their normal activities.”
In radiosurgery with Gamma Knife Perfexion, a focused dose of radiation is used to stop and/or reduce the growth of abnormal tissue by distorting the DNA mapping of the cells, rendering them unable to divide. The Gamma Knife’s 192 beams of radiation, each possessing a relatively small, harmless dose, are converged on the abnormal tissue target. Only at the point where the narrow beams intersect is the radiation at its most powerful, thereby preventing injury to surrounding healthy tissue.
“Gamma Knife Perfexion incorporates a new, optimized design that improves and expands capabilities in Gamma Knife radiosurgery, which is already considered one of the most advanced means available for treating brain disease,” continued Duma. “Gamma Knife Perfexion’s anatomical reach has been expanded to treat the entire skull base as well as the upper cervical spine, which allows Hoag specialists to reach tumors that were previously untreatable using earlier generation Gamma Knife systems and other competing technologies. And, while other radiosurgical tools require more than one session to treat multiple brain lesions, Gamma Knife Perfexion can safely and effectively treat multiple lesions in a single treatment session.”
Radiosurgery with the new Gamma Knife Perfexion remains an outpatient procedure, free of the risks of invasive brain surgery. Following Gamma Knife treatment, patients can immediately return to their preoperative lifestyle without any need for intensive care, an extended hospital stay or lengthy recovery.
The multidisciplinary team of specialists at Hoag Gamma Knife Center includes neurosurgeons, radiation oncologists, radiation physicists, neuroradiologists, specially-trained nurses and anesthesiologists working together to provide patients with comprehensive care. This clinical expertise coupled with the breakthrough technology of Gamma Knife Perfexion gives Hoag Hospital an unparalleled edge in fighting and treating brain disease.
Backed by over two decades of clinical application in the United States with unsurpassed outcomes, the Gamma Knife is the gold standard in stereotactic radiosurgery. Gamma Knife Perfexion delivers the most efficient and precise radiosurgery treatments to date with an expanded treatment area and enhanced accuracy, which allows Hoag Hospital to treat tumors that were unreachable using previous technology.
Benefits of Gamma Knife Perfexion
• Expanded clinical applications of procedures in the brain, skull base and upper cervical spine
• No intracranial limits to treatment
• An effective treatment alternative for high-risk patients unable to tolerate open skull surgery
• Collimator design provides neurosurgeon/radiation oncologist with almost unlimited ability for sculpting radiation dose to produce complex dose distributions with incomparable accuracy
• Unwanted body radiation dose to patient up to 100 times less than compared with competing technologies—especially important for pediatric treatment and treatment of women of childbearing age
• Increased patient comfort
About Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian
Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian (www.hoaghospital.org) is a 498-bed, not-for-profit, acute care hospital located in Newport Beach, Calif. Fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and designated as a Magnet hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), Hoag offers a comprehensive mix of health care services, including Centers of Excellence in cancer, heart and vascular, neurosciences, orthopedics and women’s health. Recent studies released by HealthGrades place Hoag among the top five percent of hospitals in the nation for both Clinical Excellence and Patient Safety. National Research Corporation has endorsed Hoag as Orange County’s most preferred hospital for the past 12 consecutive years. And for an unprecedented 12 years, residents of Orange County have chosen Hoag as the county’s best hospital in a local newspaper survey.
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