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Contact information


puneet.plaha@nds.ox.ac.uk


+44 (0)1865 752446

Biography 

Puneet Plaha is Associate Professor and Consultant Neuro-oncology Surgeon in Oxford with a specialist interest in brain tumours especially Endoscopic minimally invasive surgery and Awake surgery.  

He qualified in Medicine from one of India’s premier institutes, JIPMER, Pondicherry University in 1996 and completed his Masters degree in Surgery from the same institute in 2000. He undertook a MD degree from Bristol in 2011. He completed his neurosurgical training programme as part of the South West rotation (Bristol and Plymouth) from 2005-2010 and a 1yr Endoscopic pituitary fellowship in 2010-11 and Skull base fellowship 2011-12 in Oxford.

He is a Consultant Neurosurgeon at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. He has been Clinical Lead for the Oxford Brain and Spine MDT and Neuro oncology Lead for Thames Valley since Aug 2012. He has been Chair of the Tumour section of the Society of British Neurological Surgeon since March 2019. 

Education and Training

Awake Neurosurgery video: A step-by-step description by Professor Plaha of awake neurosurgery described to the BBC (warning: surgical content). Video kindly provided by BBC Wiltshire on their Facebook site.

Puneet Plaha

MBBS, MS, MD, FRCS, FRCS (SN)

Associate Professor

  • Consultant Neuro-oncology Surgeon

Research Interests

My research interests are focused on using minimally invasive endoscopic techniques to resect brain tumours and advanced brain imaging technologies to develop individually-tailored treatment for brain tumours. I set up and have developed the Awake surgery Brain tumour programme in Oxford and use intraoperative stimulation to understand brain function and “supramaximally” resect brain tumours.

Our research aims are:

  1. To understand how brain tumours interact with and affect surrounding neural functional networks.
  2. Plan surgical approaches to the tumour, using non-invasive brain imaging techniques to determine the ideal and maximal resection zone through functional networks.
  3. Understand how surgical morbidity and hospital length of stay can be reduced using a minimally invasive endoscopic approach to resect brain tumours.
  4. Identify the transition zone between low grade gliomas and surrounding normal brain in patients undergoing awake surgery using Ultra High definition Intra operative Brain Imaging.