The CyberKnife (CK) has proven to be a successful frameless and non-invasive treatment option for various neurosurgical disorders. The authors conducted a thorough retrospective study and literature review to determine the prevalence of CK use in managing prevalent neurosurgical illnesses at their institution. A literature review (January 1990–June 2019) and clinical review (January 1999–December 2018) of patients with intracranial and spinal lesions treated with CK at Stanford were conducted utilizing online research databases and the Stanford Research Repository. The coefficient of determination (r2) was calculated for each disease to measure CK usage over time. A t-test was used to examine a change in treatment modality, with statistical significance determined at the 0.05 alpha level.
The management of intracranial and spinal AVMs showed a statistically significant difference in the change in treatment modality to CK (p < 0.05), and while the treatment of brain and spine metastases, meningioma, and glioblastoma showed a trend toward the use of CK, the change in treatment modality for these lesions was not statistically significant. Evidence suggests that CK can treat a wide spectrum of neurological disorders.
Reference:thejns.org/view/journals/j-neurosurg/135/6/article-p1725.xml
