Radiosurgery--LINAC or gamma knife: 20 years of controversy revisited.

• Vol 7 • September 2005 Radiosurgery: LINAC or Gamma Knife Radiosurgery is defined as the acute high dose irradiation of a precisely defined intracranial lesion with an external source. High energy radiation beams penetrate the brain without the need for a physical opening. A high enough radiation dose deposited at the target results in its biological elimination. A steep radiation fall-off outside of the treated volume is mandatory to avoid radiation injury to normal tissue. Several sources of ionizing radiation have been used for radiosurgery, including photon beams (gamma or X-rays) and particle beams (charged, such as protons, or uncharged such as neutrons). For practical reasons, most of the radiosurgery today is done with high energy photon beams [1].

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