New software facilitates merger of multiple imaging data sets including PET, MRI, CT and MEG

Pittsburgh, January 31, 2005 -- The Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, UPMC Presbyterian, and Elekta, Inc., announce another first in Gamma Knife® brain surgery. Elekta has installed the first worldwide clinical 4-C update for the Leksell Gamma Knife.

The 4-C represents the most up-to-date and unique version of the gamma knife brain surgery technology. New monitors present on the gamma knife itself facilitate accuracy and confirmation of deep brain targeting. New software packages now facilitate merger of multiple imaging data sets, including tumor PET, MRI, CT, and magnetoencephalography data, a technology currently planned for installation at UPMC Presbyterian in the spring of 2005.

MEG mapping facilitates recognition of epilepsy causes, mapping of critical brain locations in preparation for surgery, and recognition of electrical changes seen in brain injury, stroke, and seizure disorders. UPMC Presbyterian has already performed multiple cases using the 4-C update which compliments its two other gamma knife units.

UPMC Presbyterian was the first hospital in North America to place the gamma knife technology in the clinical arena. Since 1987 6,750 patients have undergone gamma knife brain surgery for brain tumors, vascular malformations, and pain among other indications. No other site in the United States has more than one unit in operation.

Between 700 and 750 patients a year undergo gamma knife brain surgery at UPMC. It has proven to be one of the primary treatments for patients when cancer from other parts of the body spreads to the brain.

Gamma Knife is a minimally invasive procedure for a wide variety of skull base tumors and intracranial vascular malformations. It is often used to treat patients with severe pain syndromes of the face (trigeminal neuralgia).

The Leksell Gamma Knife 4-C Unit is part of the Center For Image-Guided Neurosurgery in the Department of Neurological Surgery and is staffed by an integrated team of neurological surgeons (L. Dade Lunsford, MD, Lars Leksell professor and department chairman, Douglas Kondziolka, MD, Kevin Walter, MD, and Ajay Niranjan, MCh), radiation oncologists (John C. Flickinger, MD, and Susan Rakfal, MD), medical physicist (Ann Maitz, MS), special procedure nurses, surgical technologists, and physician assistants. The UPMC Center For Image-Guided Neurosurgery provides the bulk of physician and physicist training relative to gamma knife technologies in the U.S. providing seven to eight week-long courses each year.

UPMC Presbyterian has formed a long and productive collaboration with Elekta, Inc., a leader in image-guided surgery and radiation technology.