Mr Aquilina graduated from the University of Malta in 1995. He completed his neurosurgical training in Bristol in 2009. This included research on intraventricular haemorrhage and hydrocephalus in premature babies, for which he was awarded an MD (Doctor of Medicine) from the University of Bristol. He completed a one-year clinical fellowship in paediatric neurosurgery, and particularly in paediatric neuro-oncology, at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

He was appointed Consultant Neurosurgeon in Bristol in 2010. In June 2012 he was appointed Consultant Paediatric Neurosurgeon at GOSH. He also has a sub-specialty interest in the management of spasticity and set up the selective dorsal rhizotomy service for cerebral palsy in Bristol, and subsequently, in collaboration with the Wolfson tertiary neurodisability service, at Great Ormond Street Hospital.