The Neurotron 1000 is a robot machine which brings some significant advancements to the field of stereotactic radiosurgery. Stereotactic radiosurgery is a method for stunting the growth of a tumor without conventional surgery. As each beam passes through healthy tissue, that tissue gets the low one-beam dose. Where the hundreds of beams come together at the tumor, the tumor receives the sum of the dosages of all those beams, effectively performing laser surgery on the tumor.
Stereotactic radiation is still somewhat controversial in the neurosurgical community.
Conventional microsurgery is still considered the first choice for tumors of the cerebellum, where surgical risks are relatively low. If there is an associated cyst, it will not get better quickly, but will shrink over some months. Sometimes a shunt or other method of shrinking the cyst can be used in combination with radiosurgery to manage the cyst. A number of VHL patients have undergone stereotactic radiosurgery for treatment of hemangioblastomas of the brain, and are generally delighted with the procedure. There are many treatment centers around the country using either gamma knife or linear accelerator machines.