Medics have carried out the UK's first operation to remove a previously inoperable brain tumor using keyhole surgery through a patient's eye socket.

Ruvimbo Kaviya, 40, became the first person in the UK to have a brain tumor removed from the cavernous sinus - the space beneath the brain and behind the eyes - in a ground-breaking new surgery.

Many tumors in this part of the brain were previously considered inoperable, or required complex surgeries involving removing large portions of the skull and moving the brain, which could lead to complications such as epilepsy.

Surgeons from Leeds NHS Teaching Hospitals Trust were the first in the UK to perform endoscopic transorbital surgery, which took just three hours. Kavia, a nurse in Leeds, was up and about later that day.

The operation, which has now been performed many times, has given hope to British patients whose cancer was previously thought to be inoperable.

Kavya was diagnosed with meningioma in 2023 after experiencing severe headaches, and a second meningioma was discovered in October of the same year.

"This was the first time they had done this surgery. I didn't choose to consent because the pain was so much - it didn't even occur to me that this was the first time and all I needed was to have it removed," Kavya said She is now back at work at a stroke rehabilitation center, she said. Nurse in Leeds.

"I had some headaches and it felt like I was getting an electric shock on my face. I couldn't even touch the skin on my face, I couldn't eat, I couldn't brush my teeth, it was really bad."

Liz's doctors consulted experts in Spain, who said she was a good candidate for the new operation, which will be carried out in February 2024.

Kavya, who has three children, said her family was skeptical of the procedure and was told there were risks.

"I just tell them, 'I have to do this - either I do this or it keeps growing and maybe I'm going to die. There's a first time for everything. So you never know, this might be the best I have to have it Opportunity. "It does," she said.

She added that she was home from the hospital within days and had no side effects other than "very minor" scarring and about three months of double vision.

Specialists at the hospital practiced the surgery multiple times, first using a 3D model of Kavya's head and then in a cadaver laboratory.

Neurosurgeon Asim Sheikh told the PA news agency: "This way we don't even touch the brain. It's a hard-to-reach area and this allows direct access without affecting the pressure on the brain."

His colleague, maxillofacial surgeon Jiten Parmar, developed a technique that cuts away a small portion of the outer wall of the eye socket to allow more access.

"We have innovated a new technology which I think is unique to Leeds and makes the operation much easier," he said. "It was so well rehearsed that it felt like we'd done it 100 times before - that's the way it should be when working with new technology."