Healthcare Industry News: Perfexion
News Release - September 6, 2006
Elekta to Deliver Leksell Gamma Knife(R) Perfexion(TM) to University of Virginia
STOCKHOLM, Sweden--(HSMN NewsFeed)--Sept. 6, 2006--The University of Virginia Health System (U.Va.) will become one of the first centers in the world to install the new Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion(TM), the most advanced system ever for non-invasive radiosurgery for brain disorders.With the new Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion, scheduled for installation in early spring of 2007, U.Va. will offer patients the most advanced system ever for non-invasive treatment of brain disorders. The groundbreaking system brings together the best of both worlds - innovations that make treatment faster and more accurate, plus experience gained from treating over 400,000 patients worldwide.
"We are very pleased with the assignment to equip one of the pioneering institutions in Gamma Knife® surgery with this groundbreaking new system," said Tomas Puusepp, President and CEO of Elekta. "This order from University of Virginia, very shortly after receiving FDA clearance, demonstrates the value - both to patients and financially - that U.Va. has experienced with Gamma Knife surgery. We are looking forward to a continued close relationship with U.Va., and we also see a very strong interest in Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion from other institutions, both in the U.S. and internationally," concluded Puusepp.
When U.Va. installed its first Leksell Gamma Knife® in 1989, it became the fifth hospital in the world and the second in the nation to offer an alternative to open brain surgery. Since then, the U.Va. Gamma Knife® Center has become a world leader in Gamma Knife surgery, now treating more than 600 patients a year.
Drawing upon its highly qualified team of neurosurgeons and pioneering work with Gamma Knife surgery, U.Va. offers an annual advanced training class in the clinical practice and research of Gamma Knife surgery for the treatment of AVMs, pituitary adenomas, acoustic neuromas and meningiomas.
With Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion, Elekta expands the Gamma Knife product line with a completely new system that takes stereotactic radiosurgery to the next level and provides a platform for further refinement and expansion of radiosurgery procedures in the brain, cervical spine and head & neck regions.
Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion allows for a dramatically increased treatable volume, which is estimated to increase the number of patients that can benefit from Gamma Knife surgery by up to 40 percent. The fully automated and efficient single push button approach is expected to save 3-5 working weeks of physician time per year at an average Gamma Knife center.
Designed from the ground up with patient safety and staff comfort in mind, the unwanted body dose to patient is up to 100 times less with Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion, compared with competing technologies, very important for treatment of children and women of childbearing age.
Currently installed and in clinical operation at Hospital la Timone (University Hospital La Timone) in Marseille, France, the first patients were successfully treated with Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion in mid July. In August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a 510(k) pre-market clearance for Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion, allowing Elekta (STO:EKTAB) to also market this innovative new system to the U.S. market.
About University of Virginia Health System
The University of Virginia Health System embodies the leadership and inventiveness that Thomas Jefferson, its founder, personified. U.Va. was the tenth medical school established in the United States. Over the past 176 years, the School of Medicine grew and developed into U.Va. Health System, a nationally renowned academic medical center committed to providing outstanding patient care, educating tomorrow's health care leaders and discovering better ways to treat diseases.
About Elekta
Elekta is an international medical-technology Group, providing meaningful clinical solutions, comprehensive information systems and services for improved cancer care and management of brain disorders. All of Elekta's solutions employ non-invasive or minimally invasive techniques and are therefore clinically effective, gentle on the patient and cost-effective.
Clinical solutions include among others Leksell Gamma Knife® for non-invasive treatment of brain disorders and Elekta Synergy® for image guided radiation therapy (IGRT). Following the acquisition of IMPAC Medical Systems Inc. in April 2005, the Elekta Group is the world's largest supplier of oncology software.
Elekta's systems and solutions are used at over 4,000 hospitals around the world to treat cancer and manage clinical operations as well as to diagnose and treat brain disorders, including tumors, vascular malformations and functional disorders.
With approx. 2,000 employees, Elekta's corporate headquarter is located in Stockholm, Sweden and the company is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange under the ticker EKTAb. For more information about Elekta, please visit www.elekta.com.
Source: Elekta
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