Samsung Medical Center (SMC) said Monday that it has treated 15,000 patients using gamma knife radiosurgery for the first time in Korea.

Since SMC implemented the device in 2001, the hospital operated more than 1,700 cases last year and expected to treat about 1,800 patients until the end of this year.

Gamma knife therapy focuses high-energy rays on lesions to treat patients with brain abnormalities, including tumors and tangled abnormal blood vessels, without using a surgical knife. SMC brought in the latest gamma knife machine, Leksell Gamma Knife Icon, in 2016 and upgraded its existing device to provide safer and more accurate treatment.

The radiosurgery machine provided more radiosurgery techniques depending on the size and type of the tumor, allowing SMC to perform fractionated operations without using a fixation device.

The Gamma Knife Center at SMC has published more than 60 studies in international journals, won six academic awards at domestic and foreign conferences, and acquired seven patents and one intellectual property right for its computing programs.

“Over the past decades, we have continued to speed up introducing technologies and expanding indications, and established a firm position for treating brain disease and cancer therapy,” said Professor Lee Jung-il of the Neurosurgery Department at SMC. “We expect more innovative developments to follow in the future.”