Se kilde til Leksell

{{Infobox Medical Person
|name                    =Lars Leksell 
|box_width               =
|image                   =
|image_width             =
|caption                 =
|birth_date              =November 23, 1907 
|birth_place             ={{flagicon|Sweden}} [[Fassberg]], [[Sweden]] 
|death_date              =1986 (aged 78)
|death_place             =[[Switzerland]]  
|profession              =[[Surgeon]], [[Physician]]
|specialism              =[[Neurosurgery]], [[Neurophysiology]] 
|research_field          =
|known_for               =Invention of [[Radiosurgery]].
|years_active            =1935-1974
|education               =[[Karolinska Institute]] 
|work_institutions       =[[University of Lund]] 
|prizes                  =
|relations               =
}}
'''Lars Leksell''' (1907-1986) was a Swedish [[physician]] and Professor of [[Neurosurgery]] at the [[Karolinska Institute]] in [[Stockholm]], [[Sweden]]. He was the inventor of [[radiosurgery]].

==Life and work==
Lars Leksell was born in [[Fässberg Parish]], [[Sweden]] on November 23, 1907. He graduated in [[Medicine]] at the Karolinska Institute in 1935 and began training in neurosurgery in the same year. He became a professor of surgery at [[University of Lund]] in 1958. From 1960 until his retirement, in 1974, he was Professor of Neurosurgery at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, succeeding [[Herbert Olivecrona]], who was the department's founder in 1920. He died in 1986.

Professor Lars Leksell was one of the first to develop a [[Stereotactic surgery|stereotactic apparatus]] exclusively for human functional [[neurosurgery]] in 1949, following the pioneering work of American neurosurgeons [[Ernest A. Spiegel]] and [[Henry T. Wycis]] in 1947. It was based on the [[Horsley-Clarke apparatus]] developed for [[animal experimentation]] by the British neurosurgeon Sir [[Victor Horsley]] at [[University College London]] in 1908, but instead of using the [[cartesian]] coordinate frame, it used [[polar coordinates]]. The Leksell Stereotactic Frame was and still is in wide use today. Using it, Leksell and his collaborators stand also among the pioneers in the surgical approach to the treatment of [[Parkinson's Disease]], a degenerative condition of the motor system of the brain, by precisely lesioning a small structure in the [[basal ganglia]], by means of an operation called [[pallidotomy]].

<!-- Missing image removed: [[Image:Leksell-gk-01.jpg|thumb|left|Dr. Leksell and staff, using one of the first Gamma Knife systems]]  -->

In 1951, using the [[Uppsala University]] [[cyclotron]], Leksell and the physicist and [[radiobiologist]] [[Borje Larsson]], developed the concept of [[radiosurgery]]. Leksell and Larsson first employed [[proton beams]] coming from several directions into a small area into the [[brain]], in experiments in animals and in the first treatments of human patients. He called this technique "''strålkniven''" (the ray knife). Thus, he achieved a new [[non-invasive method]] of destroying discrete anatomical regions within the brain while minimizing the effect on the surrounding tissues. Later, a special apparatus known as the ''Gamma Knife'', was developed by Lars Leksell in 1968. It is a sterotactice device which contains multiple [[radioactive]] [[cobalt]] sources and is dedicated solely to radiosurgery. Today, Leksell's technique is used as an effective treatment for many conditions such as  [[vestibular schwannoma]]s (first surgery performed at Karolinska in 1969), [[pituitary]] tumors (also in 1969), [[arteriovenous malformation]]s (in 1970),  [[craniopharyngioma]]s, [[meningioma]]s (in 1976), [[metastatic]] and [[skull]] base [[tumors]] (in 1986), and primary brain tumors. The Leksell [[Gamma Knife]] is manufactured by [[Elekta|Elekta Instruments AB]], a Swedish company which manufactures stereotactical surgery and radiosurgery equipment, based on the inventions of Lars Leksell. It was founded by him and his son, Laurent Leksell, in 1972.

Lars Leksell served as a mentor for a number of other leading neurosurgeons including L. Dade Lunsford who established the first U.S. [[Gamma Knife]] center at the [[University of Pittsburgh]] and Stanford Professor [[John R. Adler]], the inventor of [[Cyberknife]].

Leksell has worked also in [[neurophysiology]]. His most noted contribution was the description of the [[gamma motor system]] of the [[nervous system]].

==Quotation==
''Tools used by the surgeon must be adapted to the task and where the human brain is concerned, no tool can be too refined.'' Lars Leksell.

==To know more==
* The History of Stereotactical Radiosurgery, by Stephen B. Tatter, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Dept. Neurosurgery. 
* Montagno, E.A. and Sabbatini, R.M.E. - [http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n02/tecnologia/radiocirurg_i.htm Radiosurgery]. Brain & Mind Magazine, June 1997 
* [http://www.gammaknife.co.uk/internal/Overview/histgamma.pdf The History of Gamma Knife Surgery] (in PDF format)
* [http://www.elekta.com Elekta Instruments, Inc], Home Page 
* Lunsford LD: [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=9311073 Lars Leksell. Notes at the side of a raconteur]. Stereotact Funct Neurosurg. 1996-97;67(3-4):153-68.

==References==
* Larsson B, Leksell L, Rexed B, et al.: The high energy proton beam as a neurosurgical tool. Nature 182:1222-3, 1958;
* Leksell L: The stereotaxic method and radiosurgery of the brain. Acta Chir Scand 102:316-19, 1951. 

==Source==
[http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n02/historia/psicocirg_i.htm The History of Psychosurgery]
<br>[[Renato M.E. Sabbatini]], PhD
<br>[http://www.cerebromente.org.br Brain & Mind Magazine], June 1997 
<br>Reprinted by permission

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leksell, Lars}}
[[Category:Swedish neuroscientists]]
[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1986 deaths]]
[[Category:Neurosurgeons]]
[[Category:Karolinska Institutet faculty]]
[[Category:Karolinska Institutet alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]

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