Novel Applications of Stereotactic Radiosurgery Beyond Oncology: Prospective Trials in Functional Radiosurgery

The development of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is often credited to Swedish neurosurgeon Lars Leksell for his work in the 1940s to 1950s to develop a new system of stereotaxis that would allow focused radiation with cross-firing of beams to treat intracranial maladies. In 1951, the first SRS treatment with multiple converging beams from an orthovoltage dental x-ray device was for a patient with intractable facial pain.1