KUALA LUMPUR: The first Gamma Knife Centre, a non-invasive neurosurgical procedure which uses powerful doses of radiation to target and treat diseased brain tissue will benefit more than 40,000 patients every year.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam said as the treatment focused on the abnormal lesion, there was a greatly reduced chance of damage to the surrounding tissue or nearby structures.
“It is only a one-day treatment and does not require hospital stay and most patients will return to normal activities within a few days,” he told reporters after the ground-breaking ceremony for the launch of the Gamma Knife Centre and Crystal Ward at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Medical Centre here yesterday.
Also present were UKM vice-chancellor Professor Datuk Seri Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali and UKM Kesihatan chairman Muhamad Ibrahim.
Gamma Knife, despite its name, involves no knife or scalpel but refers to a radiosurgery where the ‘knife’ is some 192 precise beams of radiation that attacks tumours and abnormalities, shrinking them over time or stopping their growth.
The modern technology allowed physicians to operate on brain lesions often considered inoperable, said Dr Subramaniam, adding that the centre was expected to be opened by year-end. — Bernama