Difference between Cyberknife and Gammaknife Radiosurgery

Cyberknife increases the number of procedures that are possible with one machine. However, the ability to offer many different stereotactic radiosurgery procedures with one device has come at the sacrifice of the ability of the manufacturers to tailor one procedure to any single area of the body.

In other words the all in one system of Cyberknife sacrifices efficiency and accuracy for greater functionality. That may be beneficial for the hospital but may not be the most effective treatment for the patient depending on the procedure being performed. This is because the robotic arm moves in order to compensate for the movement of the patient during cyberknife radiosurgery and this makes the apparatus unsuitable for procedures requiring high levels of accuracy.

On the other hand in Gammaknife procedure the patient is immobilized in a lightweight head frame which makes it possible to get the procedure right the first time itself. Gammaknife is only used for non invasive brain surgery, in which 192 beams of gamma radiation are focused directly focused on a small area and thus spare the healthy surrounding brain tissue. It is a well known fact that in matters of the brain precision is extremely important. This is the main reason why Gammaknife radiosurgery is considered by the medical professionals to be the gold standard for intracranial sterotactic radiosurgery for the treatment of benign as well as malignant brain lesions, functional conditions and vascular malformations. This makes gamma knife the only sterotacticradiosurgical procedure required by a brain surgery patient. Let us look at the

key differences between Cyberknife and gammaknife.

Gamma knife

·         Possible to deliver treatment in one session

·         Provides a radiological accuracy to beyond 0.3mm

·         Rigid mobilization using a lightweight stereotactic frame that is fixed to the outer skull of the head

·         Ensures fractioned treatment for even the most sensitive area or lesions

·         Provides the exact correlation between CT scan and MR through all the processes from planning till the 3D delivery of treatment

·         Designed with a 201 source cobalt unit exclusively meant for non invasive brain surgery

·         Target confirmed ten times per second

Cyberknife

·         May require multiple treatments over a number of days

·         The accuracy is 1mm and the dose outside the area being targeted is 2 to 6 times higher than gamma knife

·         The immobilization is non rigid and achieved with the help of a thermostatic face mask

·         Due to the fact that the positioning is guided optically without a head frame the accuracy is inherently less

·         Ensures faster delivery of radiations

·         Makes use of a linear single source accelerator which is not exclusive to brain surgery

·         Ideal solution for rigid tumors that cannot be removed with neurosurgery

·         Target is confirmed almost 10 times once in every second