Lars Leksell
Lars Leksell (1907-1986) was a Swedish
physician and Professor of
Neurosurgery at the
Karolinska Institute in
Stockholm,
Sweden. He was the inventor of
radiosurgery.
Lars Leksell was born in
Fassberg,
Sweden on
November 23rd 1907. He graduated in
Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in 1935 and began training in neurosurgery in the same year. He became a professor of surgery at
University of Lund in 1958. From 1960 until his retirement, in 1974, he was Professor of Neurosurgery at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, succeeding
Herbert Olivecrona, who was the department's founder in 1920. He died in
1986.
Professor Lars Leksell was one of the first to develop a
stereotactic apparatus exclusively for human functional
neurosurgery in
1949, following the pioneering work of American neurosurgeons
Ernest A. Spiegel and
Henry T. Wycis in 1947. It was based on the
Horsley-Clarke apparatus developed for
animal experimentation by the British neurosurgeon Sir
Victor Horsley at
University College London in
1908, but instead of using the
cartesian coordinate frame, it used
polar coordinates. The Leksell Stereotactic Frame was and still is in wide use today. Using it, Leksell and his collaborators stand also among the pioneers in the surgical approach to the treatment of
Parkinson's Disease, a degenerative condition of the motor system of the brain, by precisely lesioning a small structure in the
basal ganglia, by means of an operation called
pallidotomy.
|
Dr. Leksell and staff, using one of the first Gamma Knife systems |
In
1951, using the
Uppsala University cyclotron, Leksell and the physicist and
radiobiologist Borje Larsson, developed the concept of
radiosurgery. Leksell and Larsson first employed
proton beams coming from several directions into a small area into the
brain, in experiments in animals and in the first treatments of human patients. He called this technique
"strålkniven" (ray knives). Thus, he achieved a new
non-invasive method of destroying discrete anatomical regions within the brain while minimizing the effect on the surrounding tissues. Later, a special apparatus known as the
Gamma Knife, was developed by Lars Leksell in
1968. It is a sterotactice device which contains multiple
radioactive cobalt sources and is dedicated solely to radiosurgery. Today, Leksell's technique is used as an effective treatment for many conditions such as
vestibular schwannomas (first surgery performed at Karolinska in 1969),
pituitary tumors (also in 1969),
arteriovenous malformations (in 1970),
craniopharyngiomas,
meningiomas (in 1976),
metastatic and
skull base
tumors (in 1986), and primary brain tumors. The Leksell Gamma Knife is manufactured by
Elekta Instruments AB, a Swedish company which manufactures stereotactical surgery and radiosurgery equipment, based on the inventions of Lars Leksell. It was founded by him and his son, Laurent Leksell, in
1972.
Leksell has worked also in
neurophysiology. His most noted contribution was the description of the
gamma motor system of the
nervous system.
Tools used by the surgeon must be adapted to the task and where the human brain is concerned, no tool can be too refined. Lars Leksell.
* The History of Stereotactical Radiosurgery, by Stephen B. Tatter, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Dept. Neurosurgery.
* Montagno, E.A. and Sabbatini, R.M.E. -
Radiosurgery. Brain & Mind Magazine, June 1997
*
The History of Gamma Knife Surgery (in PDF format)
*
Elekta Instruments, Inc, Home Page
* Lunsford LD:
Lars Leksell. Notes at the side of a raconteur. Stereotact Funct Neurosurg. 1996-97;67(3-4):153-68.
* Larsson B, Leksell L, Rexed B, et al: The high energy proton beam as a neurosurgical tool. Nature 182:1222-3, 1958;
* Leksell L: The stereotaxic method and radiosurgery of the brain. Acta Chir Scand 102:316-19, 1951.
The History of PsychosurgeryRenato M.E. Sabbatini, PhD
Brain & Mind Magazine, June 1997
Reprinted by permission
