Swelling following gamma knife procedure for meninigioma

Posted by lisakuehl @lisakuehl, Jan 8, 2019

A family member had gamma knife radiation at Mayo for a brain meningioma in August and recently had neuro episodes suspected to be post procedure swelling 5 months post procedure. Final tests and evaluations pending at Mayo. Anyone out there have experience with this?

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Hi @lisakuehl, I was wondering how your family member is doing?

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@colleenyoung

Hi @lisakuehl, I was wondering how your family member is doing?

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Hello! Well, after almost a year of trying to manage the edema caused by the gamma knife procedure, and all of the serious side effects from them (dizziness, inability to function on many levels due to edema, predniosne and the effects from the steroids as well), my step-mom finally agreed to have the meningioma removed a few weeks ago at the University of Kentucky (near where she lives) and she is doing very well! She was in the hospital about a week, then transferred to a rehab facility for therapy for several weeks but is now back home and according to my Dad, just about back to normal for her at age 82. So all is good. Surgery was not desired over the years because, well, it's surgery and we all like to try to avoid that, but in her case, the complications from the gamma knife, which I understand are not common, were very bothersome for her. And the steroids added to that misery as she had great difficulty tapering off as the edema issues would always come back if the dosage was too low, yet the steroids were problematic in their own right. I'll be seeing her in a couple of weeks when they vacation in Iowa. Thanks for asking!

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