In answer to an email question, facial pain CAN be treated with Gamma Radiation relatively safely if it is from “trigeminal neuralgia“.  What I mean is that facial pain can come from variety of sources that may include tooth ache, a variation of migrain headache, jaw pain, and other things. 

For the purposes of Trigeminal Neuralgia, the treatment is usually medical (with medicines) first. If that fails, other treatment modalities are needle injection of the nerve, surgery (seperating an artery that usually is right next to the nerve and is pounding on it) or Gamma Knife Radiation (radiosurgery).  This last methid is very very accurate, safe, and effective.  AND yes it can be repeated for better results again.  Risk of facial numbness is very low and Gamma  Knife works within the first 30 days after treatment.

Let me know if that answer yor questions or if you would like more information on it.

info@gammaknifeblog.com

Many patients with acoustic neuromas or schwanommas  have hearing function at the time of diagnosis. The goal of any treatmentg surgery or radiation is to treat the tomor and to maintain the hearing. To date, radiosurgical techniques have been focused on conformal irradiation of the tumor, with less attention to inner ear structures and therefore hearing. This study that was published in Neurosurgery (an academic journal) evaluated tumor control and hearing preservation as they relate to tumor volume, imaging characteristics, and nerve and cochlear (inner ear structure0 radiation dose following stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) using the Gamma Knife.

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