NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Brain cancer patients have been thrown a lifeline by a pioneering op that allows brain tumours the size of apples to be removed through the eyebrows.
The technique — described as a world first — spares patients from major ‘open skull’ surgery, instead making a keyhole incision in the front of the head.
The op takes half the time of previous versions and patients recover faster left with little more than a small scar and ‘a black eye’ afterwards.
Consultant neurosurgeon Anastasios Giamouriadis of NHS Grampian has performed the procedure on 48 patients so far and many have left hospital a day later.
One, 75-year-old Doreen Adams, from Aberdeen, said she felt ‘great’ after the operation to remove her ‘tennis ball’ sized brain tumour.
Mr Giamouradis explained the new technique allows them to operate on very large brain tumours in the front of the brain and also the middle.
Usually, patients with these tumours require an operation called a craniotomy which involves removing a large part of the skull — sometimes called ‘open skull’ surgery.
This can take up to 10 hours and expose healthy parts of the brain during the operation, increasing the risks.
But this new keyhole surgery known as the Modified Eyebrow Keyhole SupraOrbital Approach for Brain Tumours, may offer a safer alternative for some patients.
Mr Giamouradis said: ‘By doing this through the keyhole approach through the eyebrow, it is more challenging technically, but it takes half the time — if not less.
‘The patient will go home the second day and be back to normal life in most occasions within a week or two.’
Patient Doreen Adams had previously experienced headaches before she was diagnosed with a brain tumour last year.
She underwent a craniotomy which was unsuccessful in removing her tumour.
Ms Adams saw Mr Giamouradis while she was still recovering from her first operation and recalls being put at ease.