The Development of the Gamma Knife - The Evolution of Medical Imaging Technology

In 1951, Professor Lars Leksell first defined the concept of stereotactic radiosurgery, In 1967, the first prototype of the Leksell Gamma Knife® (Elekta Instrument AB, Stockholm, Sweden; founded 1973) was used to treat a patient at the Studsvik nuclear plant; the following year, the device was installed at the Karolinska, Sophiahemmet Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. Developed to treat deep-seated areas of the brain inaccessible to invasive surgery, the current configuration of the device is considered to be the gold-standard treatment platform for stereotactic radiosurgery within the brain.

PIONEERS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAMMA KNIFE:

“The first Gamma Knife^® was developed in 1967 by Lars Leksell, a Swedish physician and professor of neurosurgery, with the assistance of biophysicist Börje Larsson. “

“[The second unit] was installed at the Karolinska Institute and became an integral part of the neurosurgical service there. The third and fourth units, built in the early 1980s, were installed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Sheffield, England. The next two units built were at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Virginia.”

REFERENCES:

History and Technical Overview

https://www.midmichigan.org/conditions-treatments/neuroscience/gamma-knife/history-of-the-gamma-knife/

http://www.isrsy.org/medias/files/01about/04newsletters/the-history-of-the-gamma-knife-by-jeremy-c.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22449215

https://www.elsevier.com/books/the-history-of-the-gamma-knife/ganz/978-0-444-63520-4

https://www.midmichigan.org/conditions-treatments/neuroscience/gamma-knife/history-of-the-gamma-knife/

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-7091-6831-8_6