“Knifeless” Brain Surgery: Delivering Outstanding Results

from BestHealth, September 2005

“What began as an ‘electrocuting’ pain down the left side of my jaw turned out to be a warning signal of a life-threatening condition I didn’t know I had,” said Deanine Diamond of Bean Station, Tennessee.

She had been to dentists and oral surgeons since the pain began in early 2003, but they couldn’t identify its cause. After visiting a neurologist and undergoing an MRI, she was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), an abnormal tangle of veins and arteries in the brain.

Because of its location near the brain stem, neurosurgeons in Knoxville didn’t feel surgery was an option.

Physicians at Vanderbilt Medical Center suggested undergoing several procedures to insert coils into the arteries/veins to stop blood flow to the AVM — followed by surgery at a later date.

An active woman with a full-time job in a medical group practice, two children, and a husband who owns his own business, Diamond was not eager to undergo multiple procedures.

After exploring her options with the help of her family physician, Derek Cooze, M.D., she came to the Gamma Knife Center at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and underwent a Gamma Knife procedure in July 2004.

Everything went well, she said. “The Gamma Knife team was wonderful — compassionate and caring. I had the treatment on a Thursday and was back at work the following week,” she said.

A six-month re-check showed the AVM was shrinking — and Diamond is feeling great.

Surprisingly, the pain disappeared even before she received the treatment. “It went away as mysteriously as it had appeared,” said Diamond. “I believe it was a sign telling me to get checked. If the AVM hadn’t been discovered, I could be dead by now.”