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Doctors Hospital is the first in Florida to install the latest Gamma Knife radiosurgery technology, which expands the options for treatment and makes the noninvasive procedure quicker and more comfortable for patients.
The Gamma Knife is not a knife at all, and no incisions are made. Gamma Knife surgery offers so-called “bloodless surgery” for brain tumors, vascular malformations, and functional disorders. Its highly focused beams of gamma radiation offer the precision of surgery, without a scalpel and without the usual risks of surgery or an incision.
Doctors Hospital’s Gamma Knife team is among the most experienced in the country and attracts patients from as far away as Latin America and Europe. “With this new equipment we’ll be able to treat the head and neck, not just the brain,” said neurosurgeon Aizik Wolf, M.D., Gamma Knife medical director.
After doing more than 5,000 procedures at the Gamma Knife Center, the Doctors Hospital team – physicist Sammie Coy, Ph.D., and neurointerventionalist Steven DePrima, M.D., in addition to Dr. Wolf – gave input to the manufacturer for the new system.
“We’re excited about this because we were involved in the design process,” Dr. Coy said. “It’s made the precision of the Gamma Knife even easier to use, and more patients will be able to be treated. It also will take less of the patient’s time to be treated.”
“It’s a single outpatient treatment done in a single day,” Dr. Wolf said. The Gamma Knife is painless and quick, with many treatments lasting less than an hour. The effects of the radiation are not immediate but occur over weeks or months. Patients treated with the Gamma Knife can usually return to their normal activities right away.
Doctors Hospital is part of Baptist Health South Florida, the largest faith-based, not-for-profit healthcare organization in the region. It also includes Baptist Hospital, Baptist Children’s Hospital, South Miami Hospital, Homestead Hospital, Mariners Hospital in the Upper Keys, Baptist Cardiac & Vascular Institute and Baptist Outpatient Services. Baptist Health Foundation, the organization's fundraising arm, supports services at all hospitals and facilities affiliated with Baptist Health.
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