Mr Paul Super

Mr Paul Super has been a consultant Upper GI Surgeon at Heart of England NHS Trust in Birmingham (now part of University Hospitals Birmingham) for over 20 years. He graduated in London in 1987 and carried out his initial surgical training in London followed by specialty training in Upper GI Surgery in Sheffield between 1996-1999, where he learned hiatal surgery. He has been heavily involved in the development of day case surgery wherever he has worked, from inguinal hernia surgery in the late eighties through to advanced Upper GI laparoscopic surgery today. There are around 2000 laparoscopic hiatal cases performed annually in the UK with a day case rate overall of about 10%, and half of these day case numbers come from Birmingham where the day case rate for this surgery is 90%. Numerous courses take place in Birmingham where consultants and senior trainees visit his unit to share in this expertise, by observing three or four of these procedures on the morning day case list.

The benefits of same day discharge are well known and day case discharge for this surgery has been achieved by a gradual change in surgical techniques over the past 15 years, namely meticulous dissection, avoidance of bleeding, and minimising laparoscopic wound size to 5mm such that wound pain is eliminated. Mr Super has been a leader in the development of these best practices. This has over recent years led to the inclusion of very large hiatal hernia repairs, para-oesophageal hiatal hernia repairs and re-do fundoplication procedures performed in the day case setting.