Survey of ISI-published experience for intracranial radiosurgery according to different radiosurgical systems

Jose Lorenzoni1, Adrián Zárate2, Raúl De Ramón3, Leonardo Badinez3, Francisco Bova3, Roberto Farías2, Jonathan Hartmann2, Claudio Lühr3

1La Reina, Chile 2Departamento de Neurocirugía, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile 3Centro Gamma Knife Santiago, Gamma Knife Chile

Keywords: radiosurgery, cyberknife, gamma knife, linear accelerator, proton beam

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Abstract

     The published literature varies in the number of articles available using different radiosurgery devices.
     Our purpose was to analyze the ISI published experience for intracranial radiosurgery concerning the different radiosurgical equipments in the most frequent pathologies.
     
     A search in PubMed and Medline was performed looking for publications meeting in their titles any of the following treatment and equipment keywords: radiosurgery, Gamma Knife, Rotating Gamma Unit, American radiosurgery, linear accelerator, linac, novalis, brainlab, cyberknife, tomotherapy, acuray, proton beam, proton therapy, as well as any of 7 specific pathologies keywords: brain metastases, arteriovenous malformations, (AVM), vestibular schwannoma, (acoustic neuroma), meningioma, pituitary adenoma, trigeminal neuralgia and thalamotomy. Only clinical series were selected. When many publications of the same center on the same pathology were found, only the most recent was considered. According to the radiosurgical systems and pathologies the total number of published manuscripts was determined as well as the total number of patient included in such papers. The software ENDNOTETM was used for categorizing the publications and for general paper management strategies and statistics.
     Until July 2011 a total of 791 publications were found. According to radiosurgical systems used there were 588 (74.3%) for Gamma Knife, 141 (17.8%) for Linear Accelerators, 27 (3.6%) for Proton Beam, 25 (3.2%) for Cyberknife and 10 (1.3%) for Tomotherapy. With regard to the relative frequency of publications categorized by pathologies, in all the cases the number of publications involving Gamma Knife was predominant. 95.2% in thalamotomies, 83.2% in trigeminal neuralgia, 76.6% in meningiomas, 76% in brain metastases, 74.6% in vestibular schwannomas, 72.9% in pituitary adenomas and 63.5% in arteriovenous malformations. Publications involving Gamma knife included more patients compared to other modalities, then, when this factor was considered the differences in favor of Gamma Knife increased.
     The results of this study are dependent on the search algorithm used.
     In the ISI literature Gamma knife comprises most of the experience in intracranial radiosurgery, three quarters of the manuscripts, and depending on the pathology, more than 80 or 90% of treated patients.
     An understanding of the published literature can help identify management trends.


Acknowledgements

Project Roles:

J. Lorenzoni (), A. Zárate (), R. Ramón (), L. Badinez (), F. Bova (), R. Farías (), J. Hartmann (), C. Lühr ()