['The aim of this study was to compare the defocused (non-therapeutic) irradiation between the Model-C gamma knife with the automatic positioning system (APS) and with the non-APS mode.', '41 males and 59 females (mean age: 54 years) had the following pathologies: 38 benign tumors, 43 malignant tumors, 16 vascular lesions, and 3 trigeminal neuralgias. These included 192 lesions (mean volume: 4.8 mL), 61 (32%) of them were located deeply. The radiation treatment time needed and the choice of helmets and shots for each lesion were analyzed. The inter-group difference is analyzed using the one-way ANOVA method.', 'The APS mode could be applied alone in 79 patients or was always possible in nearly 95% of patients with benign lesions. APS-treatment failed in three patients due to unexpected collisions, and the other 18 harbored some advanced peripheral metastatic lesions. The non-APS mode required 47% more defocused time than the pure APS mode (1.1 vs. 0.75 minutes, p<0.01) before starting the next shot. Patients treated by the APS mode are exposed to a 70% less (p<0.05) unplanned, defocused irradiation dose than those by the non-APS mode. Although there is a tendency in the APS group to use fewer helmets but more shots per lesion for achieving an optimal dosimetry, there was no difference in the averaged defocused time per patient.'] Are patients treated by Model-C gamma knife with APS less exposed to non-therapeutic irradiation?