Mr Brian  Sommerlad  

Honorary Consultant Plastic Surgeon
Mr Brian Sommerlad
Mr Brian Sommerlad

Overview

Mr Brian Sommerlad is an Honorary Consultant Plastic Surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), and was the first Clinical Director of the North Thames Cleft Lip and Palate Service. Although involved in many aspects of plastic surgery, his practice at GOSH is focused on surgery for children with cleft lip and palate.   

He has been involved in the development of the operating microscope for cleft palate repair and in refining surgery for repair of the muscles in cleft palate, and in re-repairing the cleft palate as an alternative to pharyngoplasty in some patients.   

He regularly visits countries where cleft lip and palate services are less well-developed, to work with local surgeons and to assist in their development of multi-disciplinary teams. He works with cleft teams in Sri Lanka, Iran, Egypt, Bangladesh and Venezuela. He is the Chairman of a charity called , which funds the research activities of GOSH and St Andrew’s cleft lip and palate team and to support the overseas activities of the team in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Uganda, Egypt and other countries.   

He is a past president of both the British Association of Plastic Surgeons and the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He is an honorary member of the Indian Society of Cleft Lip, Palate and Craniofacial Anomalies and regularly attends meetings in India. 

Mr Sommerlad has written multiple peer-reviewed articles and book chapters; he has also been a reviewer for the following journals: Annals of Royal College of Surgeons of England, British Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery.

Credentials

  • Paediatric plastic surgery, especially cleft lip and palate and related syndromes and speech problems 

Training: 

  • M.B., B.S., Sydney  
  • F.R.C.S. England  
  • F.R.C.P.C.H.  
  • F.R.C.S.L.T.(Hon)  
  • F.R.C.S.Ed (Hon)  
  • DSc(Med)UCL(Hon) 

Membership: 

  • American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association  
  • American Association of Plastic Surgeons 
  • Association Francophone des FentesFaciales 
  • Association of Head and Neck Surgeons of Great Britain  
  • British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons  
  • British Medical Association  
  • British Microsurgical Society  
  • British Society for Surgery of the Hand  
  • Honorary Member Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland (Past President) 
  • European Association of Plastic Surgeons (EURAPS)  
  • South African Association of Plastic Surgeons  
  • Academy of Experts 
  • Honorary Member: British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery (Past President) 
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine 
  • Long term outcomes of cleft lip and palate surgery 
  • Soft palate anatomy and function 
  • Possible ways of improve palate muscle function 

Insurers

Mr Brian  Sommerlad   is covered by the following insurers:

News & Publications

Sommerlad, B., Losse, J., Kirchner, R. 2015. Cleft palate Repair with Minimal Hard Palate Dissection and Radical Muscle Reconstruction.        Comprehensive Cleft Care 2nd Edition.  

Sommerlad, B., Mehendale, F., Birch, M J., Sell, C., Hattee, K, Harland. 2002. Palate Re-repair Revisited. The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal; 39(3) pp. 295-307.  

A technique for palate repair. 2003. Abstracted in Year Book of Plastic & Aesthetic Surgery (Elsevier) Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery; 112 pp. 1542-1548.                

The use of the operating microscope in cleft palate repair and pharyngoplasty. 2003. Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery; 112 pp. 1540-1541.   

Sommerlad, B., Fenn, C., Harland, K., Sell, D., Birch, M., Dave, R., Lees, M., Barnett, A. 2004. Submucous cleft palate – a system of grading and a review of a consecutive series of 40 submucous cleft palate repairs. The Cleft Palate- Craniofacial Journal. 41 pp. 114-123.   

A long term follow-up of hypospadias patients. 1975. British Journal of Plastic Surgery;  28, 324-440. 

(This study also summarised in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 68, 402 (1975) and the Proceedings of the 6th Congress of the International Confederation for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Paris 1975, and abstracted in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery)  

A square peg into a round hole: a modified rhomboid flap and its clinical application (with A Quaba) 1987  British Journal of Plastic Surgery; 40, pp. 163-170  

Sommerlad, B., Withey, S, J., Kangesu, T., Carver., N. The open finger technique for the release of syndactyly. Journal of Hand Surgery. 26B: 1 :4-7. 

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