Awake brain surgery › Day in the life

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Surgeon Paul Grundy

Mr Paul Grundy is a consultant neurosurgeon at the Wessex Neurological Centre at Southampton General Hospital. We spent a day with Paul to find out what his job at the hospital involves.

Video: Highlights of Paul's day

Paul starts the day with his daily ward round, accompanied by a member of his surgical team. With neurological problems, a patient's condition can change rapidly, so it's important for Paul to keep a close eye on things.

Paul says, 'I do ward round everyday, once or twice, depending on what's happening on the wards and the patients that we have in, but I'm here everyday.'

This morning, he must check on a gentleman who is to have surgery the following day on a brain tumour. He explains approximately how long his family should expect him to be gone.

After Paul is satisfied that no more patients need to be seen this morning, he can get on with planning some of his upcoming operations on the neuronavigation system.

This sophisticated computer allows him to plan his procedures with precision to cause as little damage as possible.

'We've got three cases on for tomorrow, so I spend a bit of time in advance of surgery trying to plan everything really, and make the operation go a bit more smoothly,' he explains.

Paul then heads back to his office to move onto the essential task of clearing his paperwork.

The previous day, he had a multi-disciplinary meeting where about 40 cases were discussed with neighbouring hospitals, so he needs to make sure that all the referrals from that meeting are being taken care of.

On most days, the paperwork marks the end of Paul's long day, but today, the work still isn't over.

'I'm actually off to do an operation this evening,' he says. 'It's an awake craniotomy for someone else with a brain tumour, so that'll be occupying my evening, this evening.'