Nihal Gurusinghe

Nihal Trevor Gurusinghe is a British neurosurgeon who has served as a consultant neurosurgeon at the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He is an honorary professor at the University of Central Lancashire and was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours.

Academic and professional roles

Gurusinghe qualified as a doctor in Sri Lanka and moved to the United Kingdom in December 1975 to pursue a career in neurosurgery. He began working in the National Health Service that month. After holding several positions and undertaking neurosurgical training at hospitals in London, he was appointed consultant neurosurgeon at the Royal Preston Hospital, part of the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, in October 1985. He thereby became the first Sri Lankan to be appointed as a consultant neurosurgeon in the United Kingdom. He was appointed Honorary Professor at the University of Central Lancashire in May 2016 and has supervised doctoral research and contributed to collaborative research programmes in brain cancer. He has also been a member of the Specialty Surgical Board (Neurosurgery) of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Gurusinghe was elected honorary secretary of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons (SBNS) in 2000 and served until 2005.

In November 2009, Gurusinghe travelled to Afghanistan at the request of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence to review and report on the neurosurgical services available to NATO forces. The visit involved military transport, preparatory training and the use of full body armour.

Sydney Driscoll Neuroscience Foundation

Gurusinghe is the founder of the Sydney Driscoll Neuroscience Foundation, a registered charity established in 1989 to support neuroscience education and research at Preston. He served as Chairman from 1989 to 2006 and has continued as a trustee.

Since 2018, Gurusinghe has chaired the Oversight Group governing the brain-cancer research collaboration between the foundation and the University of Lancashire. spinal tumours, intracranial aneurysms, cavernous malformations, and meningiomas.

His work has included studies on aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage, including radiological grading and the prediction of cerebral vasospasm, He has published on intracranial and spinal tumours, including long-term follow-up studies of benign tumours and investigations into meningioma growth and recurrence.

Gurusinghe has contributed to research on cavernous malformations and vascular anomalies, including case series and systematic reviews. He has also co-authored work on small unruptured intracranial aneurysms, including meta-analyses examining radiological surveillance strategies.

He has served as a local principal investigator for national multicentre clinical trials, including the Trial of Dexamethasone for Chronic Subdural Haematoma, the results of which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2020, and the CARE Cavernoma Trial UK.

Honours Gurusinghe is a member of the British Medical Association, the Neurosurgical Association of Sri Lanka and the Society of British Neurological Surgeons. In 2023, he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the King's New Year Honours. In 2024, he received the Society of British Neurological Surgeons Medal.

In February 2025, Gurusinghe received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Neurosurgeons Association of Sri Lanka.