Surgeons have removed a large tumour from the brain of a young man in a high-risk operation, entering his head through his eyebrow and eventually saving his sight.
An x-ray of the brain tumour the surgeons worked on
The man, known only as Thomas B, had a tumour the size of a golf ball pressing on the optic nerves leading from his eyes to the vision centre of his brain.
He was already blind in one eye and fast losing sight in the other.
Surgeons at Bangalore's Fortis Hospital picked the tumour away from Thomas' optic nerves, allowing signals to pass through again.
Immediately after the operation he already noticed the difference. "I see better now," he told Sky News.
Neurosurgeon Dr Deshpande Rajakumar removed the tumour through Thomas' eyebrow.
He peeled back the skin and removed a small rectangle of skull, then squeezed his instruments between Thomas' eyeball and brain.
Imagine somebody who could see gradually losing vision. It's devastating psychologically for him and his family.Dr Deshpande Rajakumar, neurosurgeon
With his instruments now 10cm inside Thomas' head, Dr Rajakumar cored out the inside of the tumour and then gently pulled abnormal tissue away from the fragile optic nerves and the carotid artery, which carries blood to the brain.
Any slip with the sharp tools could have severed the nerve or artery, leaving Thomas blind, or causing a massive stroke.
But Dr Rajakumar said the risk was worthwhile, telling Sky News: "Imagine somebody who could see gradually losing vision.
"It's devastating psychologically for him and his family. So if this guy was to get back his vision in one eye, this challenge was worth all the effort."
He said the nerve to Thomas' left eye had been compressed by the tumour for too long and he's unlikely to regain vision in that eye.
Thomas will now undergo a course of radiotherapy in the hope of killing off remaining cancer cells. He hopes to return to his studies.
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