Sheffield Centre
Treating patients since 1985
This centre in Sheffield opened for patient treatment in 1985. Mr David Forster (Consultant Neurosurgeon) was responsible for the campaign to establish a Gamma Knife centre in Britain . He believed that there was a need for stereotactic radiosurgery delivered via the Gamma Knife after working for a number of years with the inventor of the Gamma Knife, Professor Lars Leksell. His campaign was successful and resulted in the installation at Sheffield of the third Gamma Knife in the world.
The National Centre for Stereotactic Radiosurgery was established and offered stereotactic radiosurgery to patients from not only the whole of the UK , but from all corners of the globe.
As experience and confidence in the technique grew the service expanded and in May 1990, Mr Andras Kemeny joined the team. The unit continued to expand the limit being old sources, which restricted the number of patients we could treat.
Mr Andras Kemeny became Medical Director of the unit in 1999, taking over this role upon the retirement of Mr David Forster.
Mr Matthias Radatz was appointed as consultant at this time and in November 2000 a new Gamma knife was installed (Model 4C) which had an automatic positioning system (APS) which improved both treatment and set up time.
Mr Jeremy Rowe was appointed as Consultant with specialist interest in Steretactic Radiosurgery in 2002, due to the increased throughput of Gamma Knife treaments, In 2011 Mr John Yianni was appointed as Consultant as treatment contiued to expand.
In 2011 the Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion model was installed in a purpose built suite based in The Hallamshire Hospital; improving set up time once again as patient setup became automated and allowing throughput to increase yet again. Andras Kemeny remained in the position of Medical Director until May 2013 at which time he retired from the NHS
Mr Matthias Radatz took the role of Medical Director of the unit in June 2013, and Mr Dev Bhattacharryya took over the role of our fourth consultant at the beinning of 2014.
As our capacity continues to meet the demand for our services we have the benefit of our most recent additions to our consultant neurosurgical team in Mr Ramez Ibrahim and Mr Geza Mazei.
We were selected to be an NHS England National Centre of Excellence (inc Tier 3 & 4) providing specialist care in continuing our support for patients acroos the whole range of conditions appropriate for Brain Stereotactic Radiosurgery including those with rare and complex conditions.
January 2023 saw the installation of the World's First Leksell Gamma Knife 'Esprit'.
The Royal Hallamshire Hospital Team remain proudly at the forefront of Stereotactic Radiosurgery inovation and development.
Following fifteen years of dedicated service, during which nearly 4000 patient treatments were performed, the equipment was upgraded by the installation of the latest Gamma Knife (Model C). The pictures here show the old unit being replaced by the 4C model.
Model 4C was subsequently replaced (and relocated) by the Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion Model, which was installed in it's present residence in 2011.
The Perfexion Gamma knife was installed in a totally new suite located on the ground floor of the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. See below
The Perfexion model of the gamma knife has the advantage of totally automatic positioning which means that the full treatment plan is delivered seamlessly meaning less setup time and greater comfort for the patient.
All technical equipment on the Gamma Knife and associated treatment planning systems, is backed by full service and support contracts, ensuring that all treatments are carried out with the latest technology available.
Demand for Gamma Knife treatment continued to grow and further expansion of the team by the appointment of Mr Matthias Radatz (1999) and Mr Jeremy Rowe (2002) enabled more treatment sessions to be opened.
When in 2011 we installed Perfexion( the process being shown in the slide show to the left),
treatments were substantially quicker as all the changes to shot position and size are carried out automatically.
As you can see in the pictures our team were fully involved with the installation and were ready for a well deserved rest at the end of a tiring day.
Mr Mattias Radatz took over as Clinical lead in June 2013 on the retirement from the NHS of Mr Andras Kemeny and since then have added a further two consultants; Mr John Yianni in Jan 2011 followed by Mr Dev Bhattacharyya (whose appointment was to replace Mr Andras Kemeny)
The centre is has now passed its 30th year of clinical service during which it has treated over 15,000 patients. Treatments are performed by a dedicated team of professionals, who collectively have more than 300 years experience of Gamma Knife Radiosurgery.
