UK NLR - Key Persons
Mike McNicholas is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Liverpool University Hospitals Broadgreen, where he has a regional referral elective knee surgery practice treating all aspects of soft tissue knee pathology and sports injuries, with arthroscopy and ligament reconstruction, articular cartilage resurfacing, osteotomy and primary partial, total and revision knee replacements.
He was trained in St Andrews, Manchester, Dundee, Inverness and Edinburgh and completed fellowships in Switzerland, America and Japan. In 2001, his first consultant post as a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon was at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust followed, in 2012 , at the Aintree University Hospital Regional Major Trauma Unit. He has a medicolegal practice focussing on knee surgery related negligence, and has been invited to lecture on the effects of the Montgomery ruling upon trauma and orthopaedic surgical practice. In the last 19 years he has performed over 1,100 knee replacement procedures, 7,000 arthroscopies and 1,600 knee ligament reconstructions. (*Figures correct Sept 2020.
He is President of the UK Biological knee Society, who promote reconstruction and regeneration being used to avoid arthroplasty, when approriate. The International Cartilage Regeneration and Joint Preservation Society (ICRS) aims to advance science and education of the prevention and treatment of cartilage disease worldwide, he is a member of its General Board. He is the Chair of the ICRS Global Cartilage Treatment Registry . As a member of the UK National Ligament Registry Steering Committee, he is promoting better outcomes data for anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions. He is a clinician advisor to NICE, associate editor and reviewer for several orthopaedic journals. He has written 13 book chapters, over 45 peer reviewed publications, over 145 National and International Podium and over 100 Poster Presentations. He is faculty for train the trainer, training assessment in the clinical environment and advanced arthroscopy courses of the Royal College of Surgeons and regularly invited faculty at national and international joint preservation, ligament reconstruction and arthroplasty surgery meetings.
He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer the University of Manchester since 2019. He was Honorary Professor at the University of Salford 2006 to 2018 and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool 2014 to 2020.
Mr James Robinson is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon specialising exclusively in knee surgery. His NHS practice is based at the Avon Orthopaedic Centre in Bristol. He also works privately in Bristol and at the International Knee and Joint Center Abu Dhabi.
James undertook his medical degree and registrar training in London. Here was also Clinical Research Fellow in Sports Trauma Surgery at the Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine. He published his thesis on knee ligament injuries and was awarded a Master of Surgery degree by the University of London. His fellowship training was at the Clinique du Sport in Bordeaux.
James' ACL research has previously won the British Association of Surgery of the Knee President's medal. He has published many research articles and book chapters on knee surgery and received awards both nationally and in Europe for knee research. Amongst other roles, he is a reviewer for the American Journal of Sports Medicine, a member of the European Society for Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy (ESSKA) Arthroscopy committee and a member of the international ACL Study Group.
He remains very active in surgeon education and is regularly invited to lecture and teach around the world on aspects of sports related surgery, such as ligament reconstruction, meniscal repair and osteotomy.
Sean O'Leary is a who works in Reading at The Royal Berkshire, and The Berkshire Independent Hospitals.
His early medical training was at Cambridge University and St Mary's Hospital, Paddington and his specialist Orthopaedic training was on the NW Thames rotation (London). This concluded in 2000 with Fellowships in knee arthroplasty (replacement) and knee ligament reconstruction at Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne and The Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia. He started working as a consultant at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in January 2002.
Sean specialises in all aspects of knee surgery including arthroscopic (keyhole) surgery, , realignment surgery (osteotomy) and /. He maintains comprehensive data collection on the outcomes of his surgeries and is one of a very few surgeons who can evidence the success of his practice and patient outcomes with such data. Sean is frequently asked to offer a second opinion on complex knee injury or revision (redo) surgery.
Sean works closely with other musculo-skeletal professionals - Radiologists, Orthotists and Physiotherapists - to ensure a prompt initial diagnosis and optimal recovery from any surgical procedures. Such involvement with the (detailed) rehabilitation programmes allows for optimal recovery from injury and may avoid the requirement for surgery.
Sean has played first class / International rugby (Wasps, Bath, Saracens, Barbarians, England B), played National League basketball (Plymouth Raiders), competed in the British Indoor rowing championships and is a keen cyclist. With such an extensive sporting background, he has a strong interest in sports knee injuries, their management and understands the complexities of performance and recovery in athletes of all abilities.
Furthermore, Sean is long term advocate of the recording and reporting on patient outcomes in both the local and wider population. He was a co-founder of The (UK) National Ligament Registry - which records the outcomes of ACL reconstruction in the UK - and was Chairman from 2013-16. He is a keen teacher, regularly presenting to local groups of physios, GPs and patients as well as presenting his work at National and International conferences.
Tim Spalding is a specialist knee surgeon at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Warwick.
He looks after Elite and recreational athletes and his specialist interest in reconstructive knee surgery includes meniscal transplantation, articular cartilage repair, ligament reconstruction including multi-ligament injuries, and osteotomy.
Tim trained at Oxford and at Royal Hospital Haslar, prior to a specialist arthroscopy and knee surgery fellowship in Toronto in 1994-1995. He qualified in 1982 from Charing Cross Hospital, London and spent the first part of his medical career with the Royal Marines and the Royal Navy.
He joined Coventry in 2000 after five years as a Consultant in the Armed Forces. He has a busy sports knee surgery practice, runs a knee fellowship program and continues to be very active in teaching and research, pioneering several new techniques. Nationally he leads the National Ligament Registry collecting outcome on ACL surgery, while Internationally he is chair of the Arthroscopy Committee for ESSKA and the Finance Committee for ICRS, after being the program chairman of the ICRS congress in Chicago in 2015. He is Vice President of the International ACL Study group.