UK brain surgery first carried out in Bristol

A UK first was carried out at a private hospital in Bristol, where an expert has managed to repair torn tissue around a women’s spinal nerve.

Professor Hugh Coakham, who carried out the surgery, said: “For years the woman has suffered terrible and debilitating headaches and nausea, but it wasn’t until recently that her condition, spontaneous intracranial hypotension, was actually diagnosed.

“In essence she had a very small hole in the meninges membrane – the lining which surrounds the brain and nerves and this was leaking fluid.”

Professor Coakham repaired the tissue around the spinal nerve with a mixture of surgical glue and the woman’s own tissue.