Doctors in the United Kingdom have just achieved an incredible surgical feat: removing a person’s brain tumor through the eye socket.
Surgeons at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust carried out the procedure on Ruvimbo Kaviya, 40, last year. The operation, the first of its kind ever carried out in the UK, aims to provide a less invasive treatment for certain tumors located at the base of the skull. Kaviya was able to return from the hospital within a few days and now only has a small, nondescript scar along her left eye.
Kaviya was diagnosed with multiple meningiomas (tumors that grow in the meninges, the protective layers of the brain) in 2023, following persistent episodes of headaches and other symptoms. The tumors were located in his cavernous sinus, a network of nerves and vessels behind the eyes that direct blood flow away from the brain.
Usually, doctors attempt to remove these tumors via an open craniotomy, a procedure that involves removing a piece of skull and adjusting the position of the brain to reach the cancer. But as luck would have it, in recent years surgeons have experimented with a new technique for removing tumors from the base of the skull, called endoscopic trans-orbital approach. And in this case, Kaviya seemed like an ideal candidate for the operation.
“This technique allows us to remove tumors without opening the skull or having to retract or compress the brain. The minimally invasive nature of the procedure significantly reduces trauma, allowing patients to recover more quickly with minimal visible scarring,” said Asim Sheikh, consultant skull base and neurovascular neurosurgeon in Leeds who performed the operation of Kaviya, in a statement from the hospital.
Doctors first performed their procedure using 3D replica models created from scans of Kaviya’s skull. They performed the surgery in February 2024, which only required about a half-inch cut along Kaviya’s eyelid. The cancer was then removed using an endoscope (a flexible tube and camera) that surgeons carefully passed around the eye socket.
“I was amazed by the recovery,” Kaviya said in a statement from Leeds. “I was only hospitalized for two days, with no side effects or swelling. I feel perfectly fine now. I am deeply grateful to Mr. Sheikh, Mr. Parmar and the entire team – they reassured me throughout the process.
Although Kaviya had to take three months off work to fully recover, she has since returned to work. And growing use of this emerging technique is expected to improve surgical treatment for many more patients with similar cases, doctors say.
“It’s a difficult area to reach, and this (surgery) allows direct access without any compromise on pressure on the brain. So this is only coming to us in areas that were once considered unusable, but are now accessible,” Sheikh said. said The telegraph.