Pioneering surgery to remove large brain tumors through patients’ eyebrows has been successfully performed in Scotland.

Describing it as a “world first”, NHS Grampian said a tumor the size of a large apple had been removed using the technique.

Consultant neurosurgeon Anastasios Giamoriadis has adapted pre-existing eyebrow technology so that he can now remove larger growths – a development he has described as a “game-changer”.

The surgery is said to have fewer complications, shorter operation and recovery times, and less scarring as a result. One recipient – ​​who described her tumor as looking like a tennis ball – said she was out of the hospital in just two days, but with no black mark on her eye.

Traditional surgery for patients with tumors at the front of the brain requires removal of a large portion of the skull, known as a craniotomy.

This is a long, complex procedure, taking up to 10 hours, and healthy parts of the brain are exposed during the operation.

The new technique, known as the modified eyebrow keyhole supraorbital approach for brain tumors, means patients can expect to be left with only a small scar and a black eye.

Some people can leave the hospital after just 24 hours and return to work within a few days.

Doreen Adams, 75, from Aberdeen previously had a craniotomy to remove a tumour.

This is the removal of part of the skull to expose the brain.

She has now had new surgery, and described the difference as “night and day” between the two surgeries.

“You hear about these things, but no – your eyebrows are wagging? No – you can’t even imagine,” he told BBC Scotland News.

“My tumor was like a tennis ball – how do you get it out so small here.

“In two days this man – this amazing young man – is going to give me my life back.

“And that’s what he went and did.”

Mr Giamouriadis told BBC Scotland News: “I have noticed in my career, particularly during my training, that even when an operation goes really well with no complications, it still takes a long time for the patient to recover “

He said of the new procedure: “I didn’t invent this type of surgery, but I have modified it to allow more space through the eyebrows, and it is allowing me to remove very large brain tumors. .

“We don’t know of anywhere else in the world that has managed to remove tumors as large as ours.

“We’re entering through the eyebrows. It gives us very limited space but allows us to do the surgery more quickly and with fewer complications.”

He said the operation could be over in less than three hours.

“Traditionally, people are left with marks all over their forehead, we avoid that with this method,” he said.

“Typically our patients will go home on the second day with the injured eye, which will, as expected, return to normal within a few days.

“This has huge implications for patients, for their families, for society, for the organisation, for the NHS.

“It’s a game-changer.”