AN NHS Scotland neurosurgeon has pioneered surgery to remove brain tumours the size of apples through patients’ eyebrows in a possible world first.

NHS Grampian consultant neurosurgeon Anastasios Giamouriadis’s keyhole surgery technique cuts recovery times and scarring for patients.

Work is now underway with University of Aberdeen to teach the procedure to other surgeons around the world using virtual reality.

Mr Giamouradis, who alongside his team have treated 48 patients with the new procedure, said: “The length of the operation is usually about eight hours and patients will spend days in the hospital.

“By doing this through the keyhole approach through the eyebrow, it is more challenging technically, but it takes probably 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.”

One such patient is Doreen Adams, 75, from Rosemount, Aberdeen.

She described Mr Giamouradis as a “wonderful young man,” saying: “I felt great after the operation.

“I was left with a black eye and it took a while for it to open, but that was all.”