A New Patient Support Pad for CyberKnife Planning & Delivery - A Technical Note

摘要

For CyberKnife?planning and treatment, patients are set up on a thin foam pad. In the head first supine position, the patient’s arms are at body level at their side for treatment. This position of the arms does not allow beams to be planned and delivered that transit the arms if arm avoidance is desired. To circumvent this problem, a new thicker, firmer patient support pad has been developed and used to treat many patients at our CyberKnife?Centers. The new pad is narrower at the level of the trunk and abdomen allowing the patient’s arms to fall comfortably below body level. This allows more beams to be planned using the plan optimization routine to enter the body from more posterior-lateral directions than can be obtained with the patient on the thin pad. Illustration of the use of the new pad and an example plan is discussed.