Читать книгу Leksell Radiosurgery - Группа авторов - Страница 17

Looking back at the past 50 years, it is clear that the development of radiosurgery and the GK was way too far ahead of its time. Even if I start the clock in 1968, instead of 1951, our first 20 years of investigation were spent in near total isolation in Stockholm. At the same time, it must be said that if we were to start over today we probably would not be able to accomplish what we did then. Today’s regulatory environment, both in medicine and in industry, would not permit us to do all the sorts of things that have led us to where we are today. Groundbreaking and disruptive innovation is much harder to achieve these days.

It must also be recognized that Godfrey Hounsfield and Allan Cormack saved stereotaxy and radiosurgery with the invention of computerized tomography. Subsequent to the introduction of L-DOPA in the late 1960s, referrals of patients with Parkinson’s disease for stereotactic lesioning dropped dramatically. The GK, in the early years, was used almost exclusively for functional disorders, including Parkinson’s disease. We were convinced that stereotaxy, open and closed, was moribund. Thanks to the efforts of so many courageous colleagues and friends we instead are looking at a bright future for non-invasive brain surgery, as well as stereotactic irradiation of the spine and rest of the body.

I am grateful for having been allowed to be part of a great journey!