A brain tumor without anesthesia

108 Military Hospital has just applied brain tumor surgery using Cyberknife linear accelerator. No need for anesthesia or anesthesia, can accurately operate mobile tumors, patients leave the hospital during the day, this technique is much more effective than the existing surgery.

Cyberknife
(Photo: or2020.org)

Dr. Dinh Ngoc Duy, Director of 108 Military Hospital, said "knife" of Cyberknife radiation emits X-beams with stable high energy levels. Radiation will focus on destroying the tumor which causes little damage to surrounding healthy tissue due to the accuracy of up to 0.3 mm. Gamma radiation, one of the most accurate surgical devices available today, is only 1.7 mm.

Another advantage of this method is that the patient is free and not framed like a gamma knife. Since there is no need to use fixed screws on the skull, patients avoid damage and pain as well as the use of anesthetic for the forehead and head. This advantage is due to Cyberknife's ability to locate tumors very flexibly in space; When the tumor is mobile, the camera will locate immediately and the beam immediately moves accordingly. In addition, it also helps treat deep tumors or in the most sensitive positions, unable to intervene in the usual way.

"This feature helps Cyberknife surgery for lung tumors, which gamma knife and the old generation linear accelerator radiologists cannot do" - Dr. Dinh Ngoc Duy said. During surgery, the patient is still breathing, so the tumor is often mobile. The flexibility of Cyberknife helps to correctly handle disease organization.

Dr. Duy added that the device also minimizes skin damage for patients when treatment is caused by a lot of beams, they affect tumors from many angles instead of focusing at one point. like other X-ray surgery machines. The energy level acting on the skin is also dispersed and avoids burns.

With this device, the most complicated surgeries are resolved in the most gentle way . The patient did not get any pain, did not feel pain, just stayed on the machine for about 45-60 minutes and was discharged within a day.

Unlike gamma knives that are only used for intracranial tumor surgery, cyberknife not only surgical brain lesions such as brain tumors, pituitary tumors, cerebrovascular malformations, auditory nerve tumors . but also helps treat tumors in the lungs, spine, spinal cord, liver, pancreas, prostate tumors .

There were 10 patients who received brain tumor surgery using the new method at 108 Hospital, all successful. In the near future, Cyberknife will be applied massively to patients who need it at a price of VND 60 million (while the US price is equivalent to VND 300-600 million, in Singapore about VND 280 million). Cyberknife at 108 Hospital is the only one in Vietnam today.

Thanh Nhan