Pittsburgh, September 10, 2015 -- UPMC has announced plans to install the latest groundbreaking Gamma Knife technology, the Leksell Gamma Knife IconTM, becoming one of the first centers in the United States to install the stereotactic radiosurgery device.
UPMC has been a United States pioneer in brain radiosurgery since it installed the first 201 source Gamma Knife in the United States in 1987. Currently, UPMC performs more than 600 Gamma Knife procedures per year, and is a major education center for Gamma Knife technologies, having trained more than 1700 professionals from around the world over the past 20 years. The UPMC treatment team consists of professionals from neurosurgery, radiation oncology, and medical physics.
L. Dade Lunsford, MD, director of the UPMC Center for Image-Guided Neurosurgery, oversees the Gamma Knife program at UPMC Presbyterian.
The new device facilitates both rigid and mask cranial fixation systems and increases the range of options for patients appropriate for Gamma Knife radiosurgery. The Icon model—tentatively scheduled for installment in fall of 2016—will replace the 4C model currently in service.
The Gamma Knife is manufactured by Elekta AB of Stockholm, Sweden.
[See also Seven US Medical Centers to Acquire Elekta's New Leksell Gamma Knife Icon Brain Radiosurgery System.]