First patient in live AI-assisted, sight-saving brain surgery

The first use of AI to support a neurosurgeon in real time during live surgery has protected the sight of a man undergoing brain tumour removal.
The operation took place at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN), UCLH, as part of a clinical trial using AI technology developed in-house at UCL and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Surgeons removed the tumour and preserved the 48-year-old patient’s vision.
During his operation, the AI analysed the live surgical video feed in real time, rather than using pre-surgery scans, to help the surgical team make more precise decisions by highlighting critical structures at the base of the brain
The AI supported the surgical team by helping identify risky areas to avoid while removing as much tumour as safely possible. It also has the potential to track surgical instruments and instrument–tissue interactions, supporting surgeons during complex procedures and providing feedback.
Hani Marcus, consultant neurosurgeon at the NHNN, UCLH and a professor of neurosurgery at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, performed this first AI-assisted surgery alongside Danyal Khan, the surgical resident leading the work.
Hani said: ‘Huge thanks to the trial participants and to the team committed to improving patient outcomes by taking this important first step globally and using UK homegrown AI to help reduce risk during these delicate surgeries.’
The AI system was developed at the UCL Hawkes Institute, a multidisciplinary research group at UCL focused on advancing healthcare technologies. The system runs on an NVIDIA Clara IGX platform designed to support real-time AI in medical device settings.
Researchers trained and evaluated the system using a large collection of annotated endoscopic pituitary surgery videos from prior operations. The technology has previously been evaluated and used as a training tool for surgeons performing this procedure.
Dr Sophia Bano, Associate Professor in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at UCL Computer Science and the UCL Hawkes Institute, and technical lead for the AI system, said: ‘This AI system was developed by a multidisciplinary team at UCL. By learning from hundreds of surgical videos, it has been exposed to a breadth of surgical examples that would take a surgeon many years to encounter. It is designed to recognise critical anatomy, surgical instruments and tissue interactions in real time, supporting the surgeon during highly delicate procedures.’
NIHR and Google funded the trial. The NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at UCLH, the Royal College of Surgeons, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and Wellcome supported it.
Professor Mike Lewis, NIHR Scientific Director for Innovation, said: ‘This pioneering surgery highlights the potential of advanced AI to support surgeons and improve patient care. By investing in innovative digital technologies, the NIHR is helping to translate cutting-edge research into practical tools that can make a real difference in the operating theatre. This work reflects the government’s 10 Year Health Plan ambitions to harness innovation and technology to improve healthcare, and it is exciting to see these advances providing surgeons with valuable real-time support during complex procedures.’