Neurosurgeons meet to increase awareness on radiosurgery

Over 100 neurosurgeons from across the world on Friday participated in a round table here to raise awareness about radiosurgery, a high precision risk-free cure for many brain tumours.

Radiosurgery is typically offered to patients with limited tumour size to arrest its growth.

"Radiosurgery is a technique of using precisely delivered radiation, typically a very high dose that will kill tumour cells in a single or few sessions. The precision is very high, with margin of error less than a millimetre.

"This distinguishes it from radiotherapy, in which small doses of radiation are delivered to larger areas of the brain usually on a daily basis for few weeks to 1-2 months," said Aditya Gupta, director, neurosurgery, at Medanta-Medictity.

According to him, over a million patients have been treated by using radiosurgery, but India continues to opt for open surgery for diseases that can be treated otherwise.

"Few neurosurgeons in India have had exposure to this technique or in treating patients so far. This is why this meeting is very important," added Gupta.

The round table was held under the ageis of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies.