A 48-year-old patient kept his sight after surgeons in London used AI to remove a brain tumor, in what health officials are calling a world first.
The operation took place in May at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, part of University College London Hospitals NHS foundation trust. Details stayed secret for months while Rhys Hibbert recovered. He carried an 11mm tumor on his pituitary gland, where the nerves that control vision sit tightly packed around blood vessels, and he faced blindness without surgery.
During the operation the surgical team remained in full control. An AI system watched the live camera feed and color-coded the critical anatomy surgeons needed to avoid. UCL robotics researcher Dr Sophia Bano, the technical lead, said the system studied hundreds of recorded operations. That gave it exposure to far more surgical scenarios than most surgeons meet in a career.
Hibbert, from Bedfordshire, was walking independently within a week and has returned to work as a customer service manager. “I could see everything in the room clearly,” he said after waking from surgery. The hospital had used the technology in research before, but this was its first use on a patient.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research funded the operation as part of a clinical trial. NIHR innovation director Prof Mike Lewis said the surgery shows how AI can support surgeons and lift patient care. Hibbert noted that the hospital, founded in 1859, was the world’s first dedicated neurosurgical hospital, making it a fitting site for the first AI-assisted neurosurgery.
