Cinema is the new opium of the people, at least in Gartnavel Hospital, Glasgow, where a Maltese anaesthetist is using films to avoid the use of general anaesthetic for his patients.

This "cinematic anaesthesia" is mostly used for knee replacement and foot surgery and allows an increasing number of patients to be administered regional anaesthetic instead of full anaesthetic.

Nick Pace stumbled across the idea after his friend told him he managed to keep his children calm during a long car ride by showing them DVDs and he immediately assimilated it for his line of work.

"We came up with this idea of using a DVD during operations and then designed a system by which the monitor can be suspended over the patient as they're lying on the operating table. You give them headphones and the time passes a lot quicker for them and there are no issues.

"There are some patients who don't want to be asleep during their operation, others for whom general anaesthesia is contraindicated, for example those with a lung disease or something like that," Dr Pace said.

The 51-year-old doctor left Malta for Scotland in 1978 as a medical student, in the midst of the doctor's strike, fearing that the medical school would close down, "which it never actually did," he recounts. He is now one of the chief anaesthetists in Glasgow operating theatres.

Patients can bring their DVD of choice, meaning at times the choices can be quite amusing. "Two or three weeks ago a patient got Reservoir Dogs," Dr Pace says, "but we've also got our own selection, including Mamma Mia, Only Fools and Horses, Top Gear and Billy Connelly."

The method seems to be catching on: "This can be done by anyone. We've been doing this for 18 months and about half my patients now want it done this way, compared to 10 per cent when we started."

Whether it's something happy like The Sound of Music or a thriller like Jaws or Saw, your next operation could be much more fun, in Glasgow, that is.