Gamma knife radiosurgery in the treatment of a meningioma in a patient on maintenance hemodialysis: a case report.

To our knowledge, this is the first report ever on the implementation and results of gamma knife radiosurgery in a regularly dialysed patient. The case presented is that of a 59 year-old female patient with a meningioma. Her initial clinical presentation was with sustained headache. Diagnosis was made by using a brain CT scan and MR imaging. Treatment was performed literally without opening the skull. There was only one complication, namely that of postirradiation brain edema, which developed 19 weeks after the operation, and responded dramatically to steroid administration. This is one of the rare side effects of gamma knife therapy, but does not seem to be related to the fact that the patient was uremic. Gamma knife therapy was successful in this patient and her safety was no more compromised than that of a nonuremic patient undergoing radiosurgery.