Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is increasingly used as a minimally invasive alternative in many neurosurgical conditions, including benign and malignant tumors, vascular malformations, and functional procedures. As for any surgical procedure, strict safety guidelines and checklists are necessary to avoid errors and the inherent unnecessary complications. With regard to the former, other groups have already reported human and/or technical errors. We describe our safety checklist for Gamma Knife radiosurgical procedures.
We describe our checklist protocol after an experience gained over 1500 radiosurgical procedures, using Gamma Knife radiosurgery, performed over a period of 8 years, while employing the same list of items. Minor implementation has been performed over time to address some safety issues that could be improved.
Two types of checklist are displayed. One is related to the indications when a specific tissue volume is irradiated, including tumors or vascular disorders. The second corresponds to functional disorders, such as when the dose is prescribed to one specific point. Using these checklists, no human error had been reported during the past 8 years of practice in our institution.
The use of a safety checklist for SRS procedures promotes a zero-tolerance attitude for errors. This can lower the complications and is of major help in promoting multidisciplinary cooperation. We highly recommend the use of such tool, especially in the context of the increased use of SRS in the neurosurgical field.