Leeds surgeons perform UK-first keyhole surgery to remove head cancer

Alamy
Author: Rebecca LomasPublished 20th Jan 2025
Last updated 20th Jan 2025

Surgeons in Leeds have performed a UK-first operation to remove a type of head cancer using keyhole surgery.

Mother-of-three Ruvimbo Kaviya had a meningioma removed through her eye socket.

Many of these types of tumour would have previously been considered inoperable because of where they are.

Often those which have been removed required complex and invasive surgery which involves taking off a large part of the skull and moving the brain to access the tumour.

Experts at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust practised the surgery multiple times - first using 3D models of Ms Kaviya's head and then in a lab.

The surgery, known as a endoscopic trans-orbital approach, took just three hours and Ms Kaviya, a nurse in Leeds, was up and walking about later the same day.

She has been left with a tiny scar near her left eye.

Surgeons have now performed similar surgeries.

Neurosurgeon Mr Asim Sheikh said:

"There's been a move towards minimally invasive techniques over the last few years or so, with the advancement of technology, tools, 3D innovation, it is now possible to do the procedures with less morbidity, and that means the patients recover quicker and better."

He said traditional methods to get to the place where the tumour was situated requires "pressing on quite a lot of brain".

"So if you press on it too much, or retract it, or try and move it apart, then it can lead to patients having seizures afterwards," Mr Sheikh said.

"Whereas this way, we're not even sort of touching the brain.

"It's a hard to reach area, and this allows a direct access without any compromise of pressure on the brain.

"So it just reaches us in areas which are once thought to be inoperable, but now are accessible."

Lisa Ferrie, biomedical engineer and head of the 3D planning service at Leeds, made a 3D model of the patient's skull so the surgical team could rehearse the operation before they did it.

Ms Ferrie added:

"When the surgical team approached me, we used scans of Ruvimbo's brain and skull to create a 3D replica model.

"This technology enabled the team to study her anatomy in detail and prepare for the procedure with unparalleled accuracy. Seeing the model and knowing it contributed to this groundbreaking surgery is incredibly rewarding."

Mr Parmar added:

"It was so well rehearsed, it felt like we'd done it 100 times before - and that's the way it should be when using a new technique.

"And actually, when we did that, we actually got a brilliant result."

Ms Kaviya said that she did not even think about being the first UK patient to undergo such a procedure because the tumour was causing such severe headaches.

"I had some headaches which felt like an electric shock on my face,"

"I couldn't even touch my skin on the face, I couldn't eat, I couldn't brush my teeth, it was really terrible."

She was eventually diagnosed with a meningioma in 2023 which medics said they would monitor.

During monitoring a second meningioma was also found in October that year.

Medics at Leeds consulted experts in Spain who said that she would be a good candidate for this new surgery and the operation was performed in February 2024.

The 40-year-old nurse needed three months off work after the surgery but is now back caring for patients needing stroke rehabilitation in Leeds.

"It was a really tough time, I was told I had one tumour and then told I had another, I don't know how I managed to cope," she said.

"It was very stressful and difficult.

"So when they told me that they're going to do the surgery - they couldn't say that it was going to be perfect and there was risk involved.

"It was the first time they were doing the procedure. I had no option to agree because the pain was just too much - I didn't even think about it being the first time, all I needed was for it to be removed."

Ms Kaviya, whose three children are aged eight, 12 and 13, said her family were "sceptical" about the procedure, adding: "But I just, I just told them that 'I just have to do this - it's either I do it or it, it keeps growing, and maybe I will die. Who knows?

"There's a first time to everything. So you never know, this might be the best chance for me to have it'. And it was."

On her recovery she added: "When I had the operation I thought I was possibly going to stay in the hospital for weeks or months and I was home in days.

"I had double vision for about three months but everything else was OK."

She said that she put herself in the place of her patients to help herself through recovery and has been left with a "really tiny" scar.

She added: "If you don't really look closely, you won't be able to see."

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Sarah-Jane Crawford

Hits Radio (West Yorkshire)