Radiosurgery cures 83-year-old with chronic pain

 Mumbai, Nov 29: Doctors here have successfully treated an octagerian 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 Trigemil 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.  “Conventiolly, 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.  (IANS)