Small Radiation Beam Dosimetry for Radiosurgery of Trigeminal Neuralgia: One Case Analysis

The use of small radiation beams for trigeminal neuralgia (TN) treatment requires high precision and accuracy in dose distribution calculations and delivery. Special attention must be kept on the type of detector to be used. In this work, the use of GafChromic EBT(R) radiochromic and X-OMAT V2 radiographic films for small radiation beam characterization is reported. The dosimetric information provided by the films (total output factors, tissue maximum ratios and off axis ratios) is compared against measurements with a shielded solid state (diode) reference detector. The film dosimetry was used for dose distribution calculations for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia radiosurgery. Comparison of the isodose curves shows that the dosimetry produced with the X-OMAT radiographic film overestimates the dose distributions in the penumbra region.