‘My surgeon saved my smile with hologram technology’

When Susannah Morgan learned that an operation to remove a benign tumour in her neck could leave her with a crooked smile she was “frantic”.

The 45-year-old was advised to have it removed in case it turned cancerous but she was warned the surgery would also leave her with a dent in her neck and possible paralysis.

Desperate to avoid being permanently disfigured, she researched alternatives and discovered a new technique using a hologram which could save her smile.

Last month the mother-of-one, from Edinburgh, became the first person to undergo the pioneering operation in Scotland.

She was initially told that, to remove the pleomorphic adenoma, surgeons would have to cut out her largest salivary gland, which contains the facial nerve.

But the new hologram technique allows surgeons to pinpoint the exact location of the facial nerve, leaving less chance of it being severed.

It also allows surgeons to open up the salivary gland, rather than remove it.

Susannah paid to have a hi-tech MRI scan in London, which produced a hologram.

It was then used by Iain Nixon, the surgeon who performed the operation, in Livingston, West Lothian, last month.

“Iain has saved my smile, I’m so thankful to him” Susannah told BBC Scotland News.

“I feel on top of the world, I’m on a high and it’s giving me a real buzz.”

When she woke from surgery, Susannah’s smile was crooked – but medics explained this was temporary because the facial nerve had to be moved to get to the tumour.

“I cried when I saw my squint smile straight after the surgery so to think it could have been permanent if Iain hadn’t used this pioneering technique doesn’t bear thinking about,” she said.

“He had to lift the facial nerve, which is like a fine bit of spaghetti, to get to the tumour and because he had to man-handle it they say it gets bruised so that weakens it temporarily.”

She said if it had been cut by accident during the operation then she would have had permanent paralysis in her face.

The new hologram technique made it less likely the surgeon would have an accident.

Susannah first went to the doctor at the end of November 2022 after finding a lump under her ear.

However, the training doctor thought it was just a salivary stone and she was told to eat sour sweets to get the salivary juices going.

“It’s such a rare thing I’ve got that a lot of GPs don’t know about it and I had bloods taken and they were all fine so it was just dismissed.

“I didn’t think too much of it because I just thought it was a bit swollen and didn’t think it was a tumour.”

But then it started growing and she could see it bulging out of her neck until it reached 3.5cm (1in) so she returned to the doctor a year later.

“I was really shocked when I was told it was a tumour. I was relived to hear it was benign but he told me if he didn’t get it out it could turn cancerous.”

“Some people chose not to have surgery because it’s really scary to have surgery on your facial nerve because there is a lot of risk to it.”

Mr Nixon, Susannah’s surgeon, said people have six major saliva glands and Susannah’s tumour was on the largest one under the ear.

“This is pioneering technology and is allowing a more minimally invasive approach to tumour surgery which can be quite disfiguring and this heralds the possibility of surgery with a lower side effect profile as a result.

“With a traditional operation you lift up the skin and you’ve got to be careful so that you don’t damage the nerve because you know it must be close.

“But if you know where it is before you start you can be much more confident and more targeted.

“That is the advantage of this pioneering technology and it makes it even safer.”

He added that the operation had saved her smile and stopped her having a dent in her neck.

“It is very exciting and I think this will become standard procedure in the future.”