Trigeminal Neuralgia Introduction Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is currently the most common among functional indications (approximately 90%) in the radiosurgical field, as stated by the Leksell Gamma Knife Society statistics. It has been named “tic douloureux” by Nicholas André, a French…
Introduction Brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are rare, congenital anomalies of blood vessels with an estimated incidence and prevalence of 1.12 to 1.34 and 10 to 50 cases per 100,000, respectively. They are typically a tangle of dysplastic vessels within the…
Introduction/Background The average annual incidence of intracranial meningiomas (MNs) is five to six new cases per 100,000 person/years, with the age-related risk drastically increasing from the pediatric population to a peak during the sixth and seventh decades. , In adults…
Vestibular schwannomas (acoustic neuromas) are tumors arising from the Schwann cells of the eighth cranial nerve. They are typically slow-growing, benign tumors and malignant degeneration is rare. They are most commonly unilateral, resulting from a somatic mutation in a gene…
Acknowledgments Steven D. Chang, MD, is supported in part by a research gift from Robert C. and Jeannette Powell. Introduction Craniopharyngiomas are benign extra-axial epithelial tumors that arise from squamous epithelial remnants of Rathke pouch near the pituitary gland. These…
Introduction The cavernous sinus (CS) is a dural venous sinus that extends from the apex of the orbit to the apex of the petrous temporal bone and houses many critical neurovascular structures, including the carotid artery, the oculomotor nerve, the…
Introduction This chapter discusses the use of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) in the treatment of secretory and nonfunctional pituitary adenomas (NFPAs). SRS refers to several modalities that deliver precisely targeted, high-energy photons or protons to target tissue. This energy is delivered…
Rationale for Spine Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy The term radiosurgery has been reserved for ablative doses of radiation directed to intracranial tumors with stereotactic localization and delivered typically in a single fraction. Thanks to the development of high-precision linear accelerators equipped…
Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is characterized by unilateral paroxysmal stabbing pain in one or more branch distributions of the fifth cranial nerve. Classical TN typically occurs as a result of neurovascular compression from branches of the superior cerebellar artery or other…
Introduction Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a minimally invasive treatment modality that delivers a large and typically single dose of radiation to a specific intracranial target while sparing surrounding tissue. Unlike conventional fractionated radiotherapy, SRS does not totally rely on the…