Dr. Lars Leksell

Dr. Lars Leksell pursued his work in medicine after a traffic accident that inspired him to be engrossed in clinical subjects. After witnessing a leading Swedish surgeon, Hervert Olivercrona’s surgery, Leksell decided to set his path on becoming a neurosurgeon. Leksell had to overcome his phobia of unpleasant smells and operating rooms. This phobia of his induced him to make the surgical process more aesthetically pleasing and as clean and bloodless as possible. 

After Leksell received his medical degree in 1935, he gained clinical experience in several renowned hospitals. In 1938, he joined Olivecrona as an assistant physician and had the opportunity to conduct his first research topic. Leksell’s first research experiment involved imaging a brain tumor on X-rays using contrast agents. His subject was a rabbit that had a cancerous tumor implanted in its brain. Even though the technique worked, the work was never officially published. 

World War II impacted Leksell in inventing the Leksell rongeur, a surgical instrument used for cutting or removing small pieces of bone or tissue. During the warfare, Leksell also received much guidance from Finnish-Swedish neurophysiologist Ragnar Granit and further developed his various research ideas. Leksell later turned his focus to psychosurgery and wanted to use surgical interventions on the brain to treat various psychiatric conditions. He tried the technique of stereotaxy, which involved entering the brain with thin electrodes to record brain activity and disrupt pain pathways, and developed his stereotactic instrument, a frame and an arc to target a point with high precision. In 1949, Leksell operated on a forty-year-old man with a cystic fluid-filled tumor that was pressing on the optic nerve and threatening his vision. Leksell was able to use his instrument to determine the precise location of the tumor and drain the cyst. Leksell eventually coined the idea of radiosurgery and aimed to develop a technique for a completely bloodless operation. 

Over the next couple of years, Leksell was able to work with various experts in the scientific field. They tried proton radiation, but the practice was eventually deemed too expensive and burdensome to be carried out on each patient. Leksell continued to propose that gamma radiation can be carried out with an instrument that would later be called the Gamma Knife. In 1968, the first treatment was carried out on a patient with a pituitary tumor. Leksell continued to work closely with hospital engineers to perfect the Gamma Knife. This instrument was slowly refined and became Leksell’s most famous scientific innovation. The Gamma Knife is highly crucial in allowing highly precise radiosurgery to treat various brain conditions while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue, which offers a safer alternative to traditional surgery for some conditions.

Written by Anna Zheng at Incisionary

APA References

Pioneer Surgeon Lars Leksell. (n.d.). Www.movementdisorders.org. https://www.movementdisorders.org/MDS/About/Committees--Other-Groups/Special-Interest-Groups/Neurosurgery-Special-Interest-Group/Pioneer-Surgeon-Lars-Leksell.htm

Surgeon and inventor | Our Story | Cancer Care | Elekta. (2022, February 21). Www.elekta.com. https://www.elekta.com/company/about-us/story/surgeon-and-inventor/