Welcome to the Gamma Knife Centre
Bupa Cromwell Hospital’s Gamma Knife was the
first in London and is a major advance in brain surgery. It enables
patients to undergo a non-invasive form of neurosurgery which
usually allows them to return to their normal lifestyle the
following day.
Gamma Knife Surgery is a procedure which can
be used as an alternative to open surgery for the treatment of
benign and malignant brain, head and neck tumours, vascular
malformations and certain functional disorders including:
trigeminal neuralgia; Parkinson's disease; psychoneurosis; and
epilepsy. It uses highly precise radiation beams to destroy
brain tumours and other abnormalities without the need to
operate. It is also used for the treatment of facial pain,
focal epilepsy and Parkinson's disease.
Gamma Knife Surgery has many advantages over
traditional open surgery:
- It destroys abnormalities without harming normal brain tissue
or adjacent nerves and blood vessels;
- There is no incision and the head does not need to be shaved;
there are no scars to heal; there is no risk of haemorrhage or
infection;
- Treatment is painless and in most cases requires no general
anaesthetic;
- Unlike conventional surgery, where recovery time can exceed six
weeks, patients undergoing Gamma Knife Surgery can usually expect
to resume their normal activities the following day.