Stereotactic Radio Surgery Cost In Malaysia

After a radiographic, fluoroscopic, CT, ultrasound, or MRI exam, no radiation remains in your body.

Damage to healthy brain tissue is rare, this side effect can cause headaches and seizures temporarily.

Some of these side effects can happen because radiation has caused the brain to swell. These delayed effects can include serious problems such as memory loss, stroke-like symptoms and poor brain function.

Some anti-cancer drugs can cause nerve damage. Rarely, radiotherapy may damage nerves in the treated area. This can cause symptoms such as numbness and weakness. These may develop months or years after treatment.

Radiation treatments can irritate the skin, causing small breaks that could allow bacteria and germs to enter. Radiation is more likely to weaken your immune system if it's directed at the bones, especially the bones in your pelvis, where the marrow functions as a blood cell factory.

Radiation therapy does not kill cancer cells right away. It takes days or weeks of treatment before cancer cells start to die. Then cancer cells keep dying for weeks or months after radiation therapy ends.

Stereotactic radiosurgery is a specific form of radiation therapy which is used for treating the abnormalities present in brain and spine. This surgery also includes cancer, epilepsy, trigeminal neuralgia and other malformations.

Sterotactic radiosurgery uses very minute and powerful type of radiation. In this treatment a very high dose of radiation is used. Basically this treatment was used for treating small and deep tumors of brain.  This surgery is being done for treating deep brain tumors, pituitary tumors, eye cancer, neurological problems, tumors of lungs, liver, spine, prostate, head and neck and Parkinson’s disease.

Usually the patient who has got small size tumor and other candidate are those whose disease are not surgically accessible.

The effect of the surgery is seen after few weeks of the procedure.

You have to undergo imaging tests such as CT scans or MRI scan before the treatment. A contrast agent may be injected for understanding the size and location of the tumor. You should inform doctor about the medications which you are taking or if you have any device implanted such as pacemaker, implanted pump, stents or an artificial heart valve. Some of the precautions which you should follow before surgery are:

• Before midnight don’t eat anything
• Don’t wear makeup and use hair products and if you have eyeglasses remove it before treatment

The time duration of the surgery is around half an hour to four hour depending on the size and shape of the target organ.

In gamma knife radiosurgery aims at closing 200 beams of highly focused gamma radiation is used at target region.  Stereotactic radiosurgery is  being used for small to medium size brain tumor or the abnormalities of head and neck region.  In cyberknife technology linear accelerator machine uses high energy of x rays target the tumor.

In most of the cases patient can return back to their normal activities within one to two days after the surgery.

Stereotactic radiosurgery may cause patchy hair loss or thinning of the hair where radiation is given, it result in patchy hair loss or thinning of the hair where radiation is being directed but the hair loss is temporary and it subsides with time.

The long- term result of the surgery depends on the condition which is being treated. Radiotherapy damages the DNA of the cells in the area which is being targeted.

Some of the risks of sterotactic radiosurgery includes skin problems which causes redness, swelling and blistering of skin, hair loss, difficulty in swallowing, nausea, vomiting and headaches.

Radiation therapy will generally cause hair loss to the body part that is being treated.

For example, if your arm were treated with radiation, you may lose any hair on your arm, but the hair on your head would not be affected.

Hair often begins to grow back during chemotherapy treatment. For radiation therapy, hair regrowth will not begin until several months after radiation treatment is completed.

Scalp hair usually grows about a half-inch each month and new growth may be slightly different in texture and color.

As you recover from the treatment you won't need to go so often. Your radiotherapy team will be in touch with you to tell them about your progress.

Follow up appointments give you the chance to discuss any problems or worries which may have come up.