Gamma Knife Radiosurgery for Skull Base Tumors(<SPECIAL ISSUE>Skull Base Surgery in the Radiosurgery Era)

Abstract

More than forty years has passed since the Gamma Knife was first introduced to the field of neurosurgery. Since then, numerous papers have been published and wealth of procedural evidence has been accumulated. For skull base benign tumors including meningiomas, pituitary adenomas and vestibular schwannomas, steady and long lasting tumor control with few complications can be achieved by Gamma Knife and it has also established an important role for newly diagnosed and residual tumors after surgical decompression. The evolution in Gamma Knife technology, dose planning systems and imaging continues to improve the quality of treatment and there is still room for further improvement of the results. Skull base tumors touching short segments of the optic nerves and optic chiasm can be treated safely by single fraction Gamma Knife.