This gives hope that previously inoperable tumors and AVMs may be amenable to treatment. Endovascular treatment continues to be promising. Researchers are looking at new techniques and comparing them with standard surgery. The treatment of brain and spinal arteriovenous malformations is a collaborative effort between the departments of Neurosurgery and Neuroradiology. It is called surgery without a scalpel and requires only one treatment of an average of about an hour.
Patients can return to their normal routines within a day of the procedure.
It is used to treat brain tumors, AVMs and other problems as well. The Gamma Knife Center has researchers working on ways to more precisely treat targets in the brain close to critical brain structures. Also, they are working to identify drugs that can sensitize cancerous brain tumor cells to the effects of radiation produced by the Gamma Knife and therefore improve the probability of curing the most malignant brain tumors. That study is looking at whether cooling a patient's body temperature can help protect the brain against damage during aneurysm surgery. Also, the Medical Center is tracking surgery patients who have had a combination of endovascular treatment and surgery to follow their outcomes and results.