Cyberknife Radiosurgery for Trigeminal Neuralgia

The CyberKnife Robotic radiosurgery system is a non-invasive treatment option that delivers beams of high dose radiation with extreme accuracy to both cancerous and non-cancerous tumors anywhere in the body, including the prostate, lung, brain, spine, liver, pancreas and kidney. The CyberKnife treatment involves no cutting and is the world’s first and only robotic radiosurgery system designed to treat tumors throughout the body non-invasively.

The CyberKnife computer guided robotic system provides a pain-free, non-invasive, no anesthesia, outpatient non-surgical procedure for patients who have inoperable or surgically complex tumors, or who may be looking for an alternative to surgery.

The CyberKnife treatment process begins with an evaluation to see if your diagnosis can by treated with CyberKnife technology. Depending on your type and location of the tumor, fiducials may be inserted into your body near the tumor to help pinpoint the exact location of the tumor during treatment. Prior to treatment, an MRI or CT scan is taken to determine the size, shape and location of your tumor. The resulting MRI / CT scan data is digitally transferred to the CyberKnife computer system where a specialist with the machine precisely identifies the tumor and surrounding vital areas to be avoided.

The detailed plan is designed to correlate the proper radiation level and exposure to a specific area and not to affect any other surrounding healthy tissue. The radiation begins when the patient is positioned on the treatment table and the CyberKnife computer-controlled robot will slowly move around your body working to pinpoint the radiation treatment at very specific points on the tumor.

Depending on the patient’s specific diagnosis, you can expect to undergo between one and five treatment sessions. Most CyberKnife patients do not experience side effects. The few patients that do experience any remote side effects are typically mild and do not need any required intervention.