In a global first, a man in the UK has undergone AI-assisted brain surgery. Surgeons at University College London Hospital used live artificial intelligence to identify miniscule anatomy in the brain.

On a live video feed, the AI system color-coded important structures for the surgeons to avoid as they performed the surgery through the patient's nose. The tightly packed nature of the brain's anatomy means that a millimeter's mistake could cause permanent damage to the patient's sight and brain function, or even death.

The system was developed 'in-house' at UCL's Hawkes Institute and was trained using hundreds of videos of brain surgeries. 

"It's taken almost 10 years to get to this stage," says Dr Danyal Khan, one of the surgeons who helped develop this AI tool and performed the ground-breaking surgery.  

"We have a large team of surgeons and engineers," Dr Khan told CGTN Europe, "we've surveyed and tested this with surgeons all around the world and it's so exciting to finally see it reach the operating theater."

The patient, Rhys Hibbert, 48, says the operation - which took place in May - saved his eyesight. He's now in good health and has returned to work. 

Dr Khan emphasised that "the mantra here is very much that we're still in control and we're performing the entire operation." The tool is still in research and development, so surgeons are a long way from being able to put all their trust in the AI assistant, but Khan says it will be very useful in "training less experienced surgeons."

Nonetheless, he says he hopes the team can "get it to the stage in which it's useful to expert surgeons at many centers."

While this marks a first for brain surgery, AI is increasingly making its mark across the UK medical landscape. In June, a system called Eureka, developed in Japan, assisted in a bowel resection at St Mark's Hospital, London. 

Looking ahead, experts hope that AI integration will streamline cancer screenings and early disease detection, ultimately reducing the immense pressure on the UK's National Health Service (NHS).