A new keyhole surgery technique means operations take less time and cause less scarring

Amid much doom and gloom about the NHS, it’s important to remember how much good work it still does, including pushing back the boundaries of medical science.

A consultant neurosurgeon at NHS Grampian, Anastasios Giamouriadis, has developed a new technique to remove brain tumours – some the size of an apple – by making a keyhole incision through the patient’s eyebrow. This procedure, believed to be a world first, leaves significantly less scarring than a regular craniotomy and halves the eight-hour length of the operation.

As a result of this pioneering method, patients are able to leave hospital just a day after their operation and are “back to normal life in most occasions within a week or two”, Giamouriadis said. So far, 48 operations of this type have been carried out and he is working with Aberdeen University researchers to create a virtual reality system to teach other surgeons how to do it.

Such surgical ingenuity, coupled with the use of modern technology, should give us all hope that the NHS has a bright future, if politicians can find a way to get it there.

Brain surgery breakthrough should give us all hope about future of NHS

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