Radiosurgery: Current techniques

Radiosurgery is a minimally invasive technique designed to elicit a specific radiobiologic response at the target tissue. Radiosurgery was originally devised to treat intracranial lesions by delivering a high dose of ionizing radiation in a single treatment session using multiple beams precisely focused at the intracranial target. Rapid advances in imaging and computer technologies in the last decade have resulted in wider applications of radiosurgery. A variety of different radiosurgical techniques have been developed during the past two decades. Radiosurgery is now being used even for extracranial lesions such as spinal tumors. Numerous studies have examined the benefits and risks of radiosurgery performed with various devices. The long-term results of radiosurgery are now available and have established it as an effective, noninvasive management modality for many vascular malformations and tumors involving the brain. Today it has become an important tool for the treatment of vascular malformations, tumors, trigeminal pain, movement disorders, and perhaps epilepsy. Its role as a tool for spine and body surgery is also under evaluation.