Dr Nick Candy MBBS, MSurg

Current positions:

• Abbie Simpson Clinical Fellow 2023
• Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Adelaide
• Department of Neurosurgery at FMC and RAH

Why Neurosurgery?

I had always been interested in surgery before I entered medical school. The ability to work with your hands and make an immediate difference to a patients life was something I found extremely rewarding. However, it was a placement in my first year of medical school with a neurosurgical practice in Brisbane that inspired me to pursue neurosurgery. Since this placement I have spent the rest of my time learning more about neurosurgery and becoming more and more passionate about it and I haven't stopped.

BIO:

Meet Dr Nick Candy, neurosurgical trainee registrar currently in his second year on the training program.

It was actually dissecting cow hearts as part of year 10 Biology at High School that first sparked Dr Candy’s interest in anatomy and surgery. Initially interested in pursuing Cardiothoracic Surgery, it was a 2 week placement at a Neurosurgical Practice in Brisbane during his first year of medical school that inspired his decision to pursue Neurosurgery.

“It was amazing, the first operation I ever saw was removal of a meningioma, a benign tumour on the outer surface of the brain. It was just amazing to see that done. I also saw deep brain stimulation being done by one of the surgeons. It was in an awake patient with a very nasty tremor, and you could see when they put the electrode into the area of the brain that they wanted and turned it on, the tremor went away. For a first year medical student it was a really inspiring thing to see. So I spent the rest of my time in medical school learning more about Neurosurgery and getting more and more passionate about it and haven’t stopped.”

Watch as he discusses his personal journey into neurosurgery, his experience as a neurosurgical trainee, and his plans to pursue neurosurgical research.

Current NRF-funded Projects include:

Pituitary gland preservation in endoscopic endonasal pituitary surgery

Project:

Endoscopic endonasal surgery to remove pituitary adenomas is now an accepted approach since first being described in 1992. Over the last 30 years the complications associated with endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery has dramatically improved, namely rates of CSF leak, visual outcomes and degree of tumour resection.

Post operative dysfunction to the pituitary gland and the hormones it produces, or endocrinopathy, is an ongoing potential complication that has not improved over the past 30 years like the previously mentioned potential complications.

This research project will aim to identify potential factors that may be associated with post operative endocrinopathy in patients undergoing pituitary adenoma resection. In addition, other projects will focus on strategies to improve rates of post operative endocrinopathy, these will include: investigating different modalities of intraoperative neuronavigation in the operating theatre, working on development of a pituitary adenoma resection simulated training model and categorising the different membrane receptors that are expressed on pituitary adenomas and normal pituitary gland.

Publications:

For a full list of Dr Candys publications, please visit his research Gate profile.