Radiosurgery cures 83-yr-old of chronic pain

Doctors here have successfully treated an octagenarian patient, suffering from chronic and excruciating facial pain for 15 years, with an advanced technology in a record 23.7 minutes, the fastest in India, the hospital said in a statement on Wednesday.

Ibrahim Khan, 83, was suffering from Trigeminal Neuralgia also known as “The Suicide Disease” – a form of neuropathic pain which is associated with nerve injury or nerve lesion.

While treatment with other therapies over a span of 15 years, including radio frequency ablation and other neurological treatments, did not bring results, the doctors at HCG Apex Cancer Centre here, resorted to stereotactic radiosurgery. Radiosurgery is destruction of the precisely selected areas of the tissues using ionising radiation rather than excision with blade.

“Conventionally, a condition like this can be treated using several platforms using X-Knife, Cyberknife, or Gamma knife that typically takes about 25-90 minutes to deliver the treatment,” said Shankar Vangipuram, HOD (Radiation Oncology) at HCG Apex Cancer Centre.

However, “we conducted a radio surgery using a combination of stereotactic cones, hexapod robotics, flattening free filter mode technology in Versa HD radiation therapy system”, Vangipuram said.

The non-invasive procedure using submillimeter precision required neither anaesthesia, or blood transfusions and had no risk for any infections.

"Using the right mix of advanced technology, we successfully delivered the treatment in just 23.7 minutes, recorded to be the shortest duration to treat a condition of Trigeminal Neuralgia in India," Vangipuram said.

Currently "the patient is back to his routine life with no symptoms of recurrence or side effects and with medications totally stopped", Vangipuram added.

Trigeminal Neuralgia, also known as 'The Suicide Disease, is a form of neuropathic pain which is associated with nerve injury or nerve lesion