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This book attempts to combine many different threads into a comprehensible whole. Since the subject is the Gamma Knife and the author is a neurosurgeon, the field of clinical interest is restricted to intracranial pathology. The discipline of radiosurgery now applies to patients who may reasonably be referred by internists, neurologists, otolaryngologists, endocrinologists and several others. Some of the topics, touched upon, such as stereotaxy and the construction of a radio surgical instrument are unfamiliar to the majority of medical men. Other topics, such as those pertaining to the reactions between radiation and living tissue, are not exactly unfamiliar and yet, for most of us, they are not comfortable areas of expertise: in that we have some basic knowledge but not enough to draw conclusions and interpret. In particular, it is not easy to answer the very sensible questions that patients ask, when being considered for this particular form of treatment. The author has attempted to describe the basic relevant phenomenology in terms that should be readily understandable to a non-specialist physician. To do this, he has been heavily dependent on the expertise of a number of mathematically sophisticated collaborators, who have checked his manuscript. They are named in the acknowledgments section. The relevance of the different sections of this book will naturally be assessed differently, according to the experience and interest of the reader. To simplifY access to the information that is required, the book is divided into three main sections.
List of contents
I. Introduction and Basic Principles.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Principles of Stereotaxy.- 3. Ionising Radiation and its Physical and Chemical Effects on Living Tissue.- 4. Biological Effects of Ionising Radiation.- 5. Ionising Radiation and Clinical Practice.- 6. Development of the Gamma Knife.- 7. Radiophysics, Radiobiology and the Gamma Knife.- II. The Patient's Experience.- 8. Gamma Knife Radiosurgery: A Patient's Eye View.- III. Clinical Aspects.- 9. Diverse Clinical Aspects.- 10. Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformations.- 11. Acoustic Schwannomas.- 12. Gamma Knife Applications in and around the Pituitary Fossa.- 13. Meningiomas.- 14. Miscellaneous Indications for Gamma Knife Radiosurgery.- 15. The Future.- References.
Report
"... This book is very well structured and is a good introduction to stereotaxy and ionising radiation as treatment for specific intracranial lesions. It gives basic information necessary to understand the effect, indications and practical organization of a gamma knife intervention and makes it possible to respond to the patient's questions. ... is recommended for those who are performing or starting to perform radiosurgery, and for anyone who wishes to refer patients for such treatment." European Radiology "... This second edition includes some of the developments in the rapidly changing field of stereotactic radiosurgery ... serve as a very useful starting point ..." British Journal of Neurosurgery
