STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 21-25, the 13th International Leksell Gamma Knife Society Meeting will be in session in Seoul, Korea, giving Leksell Gamma Knife(R) users, leading neurosurgeons and radiation oncologists from around the world, an update on recent developments within Gamma Knife(R) surgery. At the meeting, Kim Dae-jung, former President of the Republic of Korea and the year 2000 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate will be installed as honorary chairman of the Society, joining Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, who was installed at the 11th Society meeting held in Prague, 2002.
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Gamma Knife surgery is the gold standard in high-precision radiation treatment and the gold standard in non-invasive brain surgery. Replacing the saw and the scalpel with highly focused radiation beams which produce the desired biological effect at a precisely predetermined target in the brain, the patient can usually leave the hospital on the day of treatment.
Since its introduction, Gamma Knife surgery has revolutionized the treatment of brain disorders and today this treatment is offered by hundreds of leading hospitals and clinics around the world. Nearly 50,000 patients undergo Gamma Knife surgery every year, and this unique procedure has earned an outstanding scientific track record with thousands of peer reviewed articles on treatment efficacy, improved quality of life for patients and cost efficiency. In fact, no other alternative treatment in this field has gained greater clinical acceptance.
“In Korea we will soon have 10 Gamma Knife Centers and I understand that until today Korean neurosurgeons working with this technology have been able to help more than 12,000 Korean citizens to obtain non-invasive brain surgery for different kinds of brain disorders. This represents an important advance for Korean medicine,” Kim Dae-jung says in his welcome message to the Society Members.
In the scientific program, the Society Members will be able to choose from more than 240 clinical presentations all presented by Gamma Knife users and other clinicians, including how Gamma Knife surgery has been applied to solitary and multiple brain metastases, vestibular schwannomas, vascular malformations, functional disorders such as trigeminal neuralgia and epilepsy and some eye disorders.
“The biannual meetings of the Leksell Gamma Knife Society is an important event for sharing the latest clinical advancements in stereotactic radiosurgery, says Dan Leksell, MD, responsible for Elekta’s clinical research programs. The continuous open sharing and transfer of expertise, knowledge and experience, allowing a new Gamma Knife center to quickly achieve the same standard as an experienced center, has over the years been a key to the success of Gamma Knife surgery. The subsequent publication of the proceedings of the Society Meetings as a supplement to the Journal of Neurosurgery, one of two premiere journals in the field of neurosurgery, also allows other neurosurgeons as well as neurologists, oncologists, otologists and ophthalmologists to gain knowledge of the possibilities offered with Gamma Knife surgery and the most recent advances made”, Dan Leksell concludes.
About Elekta
Elekta is an international medical-technology Group, providing meaningful clinical solutions, comprehensive information systems and services for improved cancer care and management of brain disorders. All of Elekta’s solutions employ non-invasive or minimally invasive techniques and are therefore clinically effective, gentle on the patient and cost-effective.
Clinical solutions include among others Leksell Gamma Knife(R) for non- invasive treatment of brain disorders and Elekta Synergy(R) for image guided radiation therapy (IGRT). Following the acquisition of IMPAC Medical Systems Inc. in April 2005, the Elekta Group is the world’s largest supplier of oncology software.
Elekta’s systems and solutions are used at over 3,000 hospitals around the world to treat cancer and manage clinical operations as well as to diagnose and treat brain disorders, including tumors, vascular malformations and functional disorders.
With approx. 1,850 employees, Elekta’s corporate headquarter is located in Stockholm, Sweden and the company is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange under the ticker EKTAb. For more information about Elekta, please visit http://www.elekta.com.
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CONTACT: Peter Ejemyr, Group VP Corporate Communications of Elekta AB, +46733 611 000, or peter.ejemyr@elekta.com
Web site: http://www.elekta.com/
