CV and Publications
C Richard R Corbett MChir FRCS
Education
Repton School, Derby 1958-1963
Trinity College, Cambridge 1963-1966
St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School 1966-1969
Degrees
BA 1966
BChir 1969
MB 1970
MA 1970
FRCS (England) 1973
MChir 1980
First Class Honours in Natural Sciences Tripos Part 1 and Scholarship Award given by Trinity College, Cambridge 1965
Accreditation
July 1982, Certificate of Higher Surgical Training, General Surgery
Present Appointment
Consultant Vascular and General Surgeon Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, working at The Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton and The Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath.
Previous Appointments
Senior Registrar St Thomas’ Hospital St Helier Hospital & Portsmouth 1979-1985
Research Registrar St Thomas’ Hospital 1977-1978
Senior Resident University of California, Irvine Long Beach VA Hospital 1976
Surgical Registrar St Thomas Hospital 1974-1975
Surgical Registrar Leicester General Infirmary 1972-1974
Senior House Officer Brook General Hospital, Woolwich General & Cardiothoracic Surgery 1971-1972
Casualty Officer St Thomas’ Hospital 1970
House Surgeon St Thomas’ Hospital 1969
Surgical Training
In common with most trainees of the 1970’s and early 1980’s I had a broad training which would be regarded as lengthy by present standards. Although it had its frustrations, looking back I do not feel that any of the time was wasted. I received excellent training in nearly all aspects of general surgery. Besides vascular surgery, I received training in colorectal surgery, upper GI surgery, including oesophagectomy, biliary surgery, breast surgery, thyroid and parotid surgery and renal transplantation.
When I was at the Brook Hospital I was SHO to Mr Arthur Wyatt who initiated my interest in vascular surgery and gave me a research project to study flow rates through cadaveric, reversed and non-reversed, long saphenous veins. I obtained registrar experience in vascular surgery at Leicester General Hospital working for Mr Richard Greenwood, and then I returned to St Thomas’ as a middle grade registrar in 1974. I was fortunate to have the opportunity during this two-year rotation to go to Orange County, California, as a guest of Dr Jack Connolly, Professor and Chairman at the University of California, Irvine. I was a senior resident on an exchange programme working in a clinical post, mainly at Long Beach VA Hospital. This provided excellent experience of vascular surgery in the USA.
On my return I started a research post in renal transplantation and during the period was trained to carry out renal transplantation, supervised and then unsupervised.
In 1979 I was appointed Senior Registrar on the St Thomas’ Hospital SR rotation which included years spent at Portsmouth and St Helier Hospital, On the Surgical Unit at St Thomas’ I received superb training in all aspects of arterial, venous and lymphatic surgery under the direction, first of the late Professor John Kinmonth and then Professor Sir Norman Browse. I gained further experience with Mr Crawford Jamieson at St Thomas’, Mr John Edwards and Mr Anthony Chilvers at St Helier, and Mr Geoffrey Prout at Portsmouth, I also spent a year working for Sir Barry Jackson and Mr John Nicholls on the colorectal firm at St Thomas and for Mr Anthony Young (breast & thyroid surgery) and Mr Bert Thompson (renal transplantation).
Experience in Current Post
The nature of the work that I do in my current post has changed enormously over the 21 years since I was appointed. Although appointed with a distinct vascular interest, initially I carried out a very broad range of surgery. Progressively this has narrowed so that since July 2005 I have been exclusively a vascular surgeon apart from a continuing interest in hernia repair.
I used to work as a single handed vascular surgeon at The Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath but as a result of reorganisation of vascular surgical services and a trust merger with Brighton all my arterial work is done in Brighton where a full range of vascular services including endovascular work is provided. I no longer do carotid endarterectomy as the numbers in Haywards Heath, with a healthy population, were too small.
I have extensive experience of varicose vein surgery, and have developed a special interest in the aetiology and management of recurrent varicose veins. We have established ‘Single Visit Clinics’ for the assessment of patients with varicose veins and leg ulcers, duplex ultrasonography, and compression bandaging being done at the same visit. We have promoted day case surgery, some 70% of all varicose vein patients being managed this way and I have developed techniques for operating under local anaesthesia for those patients who prefer this. I am now an enthusiast for foam sclerotherapy as I consider it ideal for the treatment of varicose veins in certain patients. Endovascular methods of treatment are gaining in popularity and I now offer radiofrequency ablation (VNUS) in the private sector. Unfortunately it is not available within the NHS and indeed since May 2007 all varicose vein surgery has been restricted by the PCT’s.
I provide detailed sheets of information and advice for patients covering arterial disease, varicose veins, compression hosiery and hernia repair. Attention is directed to informing patients about risk, in order to help them make up their minds whether to opt for operation. This is particularly important for non-essential procedures such as varicose vein operations.
Audit
I have had a long interest in audit, increasing over the years with my improving computer skills. Throughout my consultant career I have contributed to the monthly Mortality and Morbidity Meeting which I still regard as the most important and valuable form of audit. On a personal basis I have carried out audit of my annual workload, arterial surgery, varicose vein surgery, emergency admissions and the speed of dispatch of discharge summaries to General Practitioners. In varicose veins I have audited complications, the risk of thromboembolism, the appropriateness of day surgery, training of junior staff in operative technique and patient satisfaction with consent. For about 5 years I completed annual returns to the Royal College of Surgeons of England Comparative Audit and I have contributed to audits conducted by the Vascular Surgical Society on aortic aneurysm, chronic lower limb ischaemia and acute limb ischaemia, I am fully conversant with the MicroMed computer system which we installed in our department in 1989 and this has proved to be an invaluable tool in many audit projects. When I moved to Brighton I found there was no comparable system and I have been instrumental in establishing the Dendrite Vascular Audit system on which both arterial and venous operations are recorded. From 2008 this again changes as we move to on-line entry of data to the Vascular Society National Database.
Management
I have had many years of management experience. Soon after my initial appointment to Cuckfield Hospital I was made Consultant Representative on the Commissioning Team as we moved from the old hospital to the new Princess Royal Hospital. I was heavily involved in this work between 1987 and 1991 when the Princess Royal Hospital was commissioned, Soon after that I took over as Lead Clinician for General Surgery, a post I held almost continuously for 10 years. I was actively involved in monthly meetings of the Surgical Directorate, Trust Management Executive, Theatre Management Committee and I had long experience of dealing with GP Fundholders and then the Primary Care Trusts. I have been involved in a series of service reviews concerning delivery of care in Central Sussex. The end result was the trust merger between Brighton Health Care and the Mid-Sussex NHS Trust. The catchment population for vascular surgery is now about 500,000 and will rise to 750,000. Since 2002 my work has mainly been in Brighton and I am happy to let others have their turn.
Educational
Throughout my consultant career I have I have regularly taught registrars, SHO’s, PRHO’s and students. For most of my time at Princess Royal I only had an SHO attached to my firm, but now that I have a specialist registrar in Brighton I am enjoying the challenge of assisting more experienced trainees through complex arterial operations. During my 10 years as Lead Clinician at Princess Royal I also arranged the weekly surgical meetings for presentation of Morbidity and Mortality data, results of other audits, journal club and clinical governance. I am now much more involved in teaching medical students since the inception of the Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
Research
At St Thomas’ Hospital I spent 15 months in full time research. I made a biochemical study of urinary enzyme excretion which was used as an aid to diagnosis of renal transplant rejection. The tests were useful but tended to be replaced by other methods of diagnosis as new technology developed. I also studied the same enzymes in patients having major arterial surgery, making some interesting observations which have been repeated and confirmed 20 years later by researchers looking at differences in the postoperative course of patients having open aortic aneurysm repair, compared with endovascular repair. Endovascular repair is reported to show less renal disturbance. My work was submitted for the MChir degree at Cambridge University and I was successful in the clinical examination in 1980.
During my time as a senior registrar I completed various clinical studies, mostly in the vascular field and that led on to a continuing research interest in phlebology during my consultant career. This has sustained my research interest and helped the CV’s of many SHO by giving them the opportunity to present work to the Venous Forum of the Royal Society of Medicine and other societies at national and international meetings.
National Societies
I am a Fellow or Member of the following bodies:
The Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal Society of Medicine, past Hon Secretary and Past President of the Venous Forum
The Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland
The Vascular Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland
The British Medical Association
I was a member of the Steering Committee of the Venous Forum for 13 years and Honorary Secretary from 1995-2000. 1 was an Editorial Representative for the journal Phlebology, and I regularly produced reports of meetings to provide a synopsis and commentary on the proceedings. These were published in Phlebology. In 1995 I was a member of the Organising Committee of the 12th World Congress of the Union Internationale de Phlébologie, held at the Barbican Centre, London. In 2002 I returned to the Council of the Venous Forum as President-Elect and was President from 2005-7.
Publications
Vascular
Corbett CRR, Dale RF, Coltart DJ Kinmonth JB. Congenital heart disease in patients with primary lymphoedemas. Lymphology 1982; 15:85-90.
Corbett CRR, Taylor PR, Chilvers AS, Edwards JM Axillofemoral bypass in poor risk patients with critical ischaemia. Ann R Coll Surg Engl 1984;66:170-2.
McIrvine AJ, Corbett CRR, Aston NO, Sherriff BA, Wiseman PA, Jamieson CW. The demonstration of sapheno-femoral incompetence: Doppler-ultrasound compared with standard clinical tests. Br J Surg 1984;71:509-10.
Corbett CRR, McIrvine AJ, Aston NO, Jamieson CW and Lea Thomas M. The use of varicography to identify the sources of incompetence in recurrent varicose veins. Ann R Coll Surg Engl 1984;66:412-5.
Parkhouse N, Corbett CRR. Clinical curio: lifelong phantom limb, Brit Med J 1984:289:34.
Corbett CRR, Chilvers AS. Ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm treated by ligation of the aorta and axillobifemoral bypass. J Cardiovasc Surg 1984:25:510-2.
Corbett CRR, Runcie IJ, Lea Thomas M, Jamieson CW. Reasons to strip the long saphenous vein. Phlébologie 1988;41:766-9.
Corbett R. Jayakumar KN. Clean up varicose vein surgery - use a tourniquet. Ann R Coll Surg Engl 1989;71:57-8.
Corbett CRR, Harries WJ. Which stripper, metal or plastic disposable? Phlebology 1991;6:149-51.
Corbett CRR. Editorial Review. How important are thigh perforating veins? Phlebology 1991;6:3-5.
Hafez H, Jarvis S, Harvey A, Harvey M, Corbett CRR. Get it right first time; the results of primary operations for varicose veins are better than for recurrence. Phlebology 1995;Suppl. 1:400-3.
Critchley G, Handa A, Maw A, Harvey A, Harvey MR, Corbett CRR. Complications of varicose vein surgery. Ann R Coll Surg Engl 1997; 79: 105-110.
Jalaluddin M, Parnell EJ, Corbett CRR. Venous aneurysm occurring after revisional hip surgery: a case report. Phlebology 1988; 13:171-3.
Corbett CRR. Which patients should be selected for venous surgery? In: Ruckley CV, Fowkes FGR, Bradbury AW. eds. Venous disease Epidemiology, management and delivery of care. London: Springer 1999:174-183.
Geyer M. Stott PM, Harvey A, Corbett CRR. Workload generated by a single visit venous clinic. Phlebology 2001;16:80-4.
Srilekha A, Karunanithy N, Corbett CRR. Informed consent: what do we tell patients about the risk of fatal pulmonary embolism after varicose vein surgery? Phlebology 2005; 20: 175-8.
Dowson CJ, Levy B, Corbett CRR. Experience gained by basic surgical trainees in varicose vein surgery over a 15 year period – has it changed? Eur J Vasc Endovasc Surg 2008;35:214-7.
Winterborn RJ, Corbett CRR. Treatment of varicose veins: the present and the future - a questionnaire survey. Ann R Coll Surg Engl (in press).
Publications - other than Vascular
Corbett CRR, Lloyd-Davies RW. Long term survival after urinary diversion. European Urology 1976;2:221-5.
Corbett CRR. An unusual case of cavernositis. Br J Urol 1978;50:53.
Corbett CRR, Thompson AR, Price RG. Urinary enzymes and renal transplantation; the early warning controversy. Clin Chem 1978;24;724-5.
Corbett CRR, Wellwood JM, Tucker SM, Thompson AE. A 5 year experience of N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase for diagnosis of rejection in renal transplantation. Transplant Proc 1979,12:111-3.
Corbett CRR, Prout WG, Hewitt GW, Tuke W. Okubadejo OA. The value of metronidazole prophylaxis in appendicectomy patients. The Royal Society of Medicine, International Congress and Symposium Series 1979,12:111-3.
Corbett CRR, Hollands MJ, Young AE. Penetration of a prophylactic antibiotic into peritoneal fluid. Br J Surg 1981;68:314-5.
McFarland RJ, Corbett CR.R, Taylor P, Nash AG. The relaxant action of hymecromone and lignocaine on induced spasm of the bile duct sphincter. Br J Clin Pharmac 1984;17:766-8.
Corbett CRR, McFarland RJ, Spencer GR, Ryan DM. The penetration of ceftazidime into peritoneal fluid in patients undergoing elective abdominal surgery. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 1985 ;16:261-5.
Corbett CRR, Fyfe NC. Nicholls RJ, Jackson BT. Bile peritonitis after removal of T- tubes from the common bile duct. British Journal of Surgery 1986;73:641-3.
Yuen CT. Corbett CRR, Kind PR, Thompson AE, Price RG. Isoenzymes of urinary N- acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) in patients with renal transplants. Clinica Chimica Acta 1987,164:339-50.
Corbett CRR, Young AE, Gaunt J, Unal H, Unal G. The effect of ligation of the inferior thyroid artery upon thyroid remnant function. Surgery, Gynaecology & Obstetrics 1988;166:418-20.
Gill K, Black SA, Clarke P, Corbett CRR. Misleading mortality data in league tables. Ann Roy Coll Surg Engl (suppl) 2003;85:244-7.
Recent Communications and Published Abstracts
Streeter EH, Qureshi T, Harvey MR, Corbett CRR. Thromboembolism after varicose vein surgery. Br J Surg 1998;85 Suppl 1:26.
Wakeham NR, Bowman J, Corbett CRR. How many of the patients with a venous ulcer have venous surgery? Phlebology 1999;14: 133.
Alsousou J, Yavari A, Ho J, Corbett CRR. Consent for varicose vein surgery – the patients’ views. Phlebology 2003;18:45.
Black SA, Gill K, Corbett CRR. The audit cycle – who cares? Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, Manchester. May 2003. (Br J Surg 2003; 90 Suppl 1:95).
Black SA, Rust P, Arnold F, Corbett CRR. Surgical mortality rates in league tables – fact or fiction? Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, Manchester. May 2003. (Br J Surg 2003; 90 Suppl 1:98).
Srilekha A, Karunanithy N, Corbett CRR. Informed consent: what do we tell the patients about the risk of fatal pulmonary embolism after varicose vein surgery? Phlebology 2004;19:103.
Day AR, Bowman JF, Cheal D, Ward SP, Corbett CRR. Prospective audit of short saphenous vein ligation and stripping. Venous Forum of the Royal Society of Medicine, Brighton. March 2005. (Phlebology 2005;20:103).
Kotze K, Ramamoorthy P, Corbett CRR. Operative findings at re-exploration for short saphenous vein incompetence. Venous Forum of the Royal Society of Medicine, Brighton. March 2005. (Phlebology 2005;20:104).
Cook L, Gurprashad R, Hyde S, Shipperley T, Yusuf SW, Corbett CRR. Ankle brachial pressure indices in the community; can we trust the nurses? Spring Meeting of the Venous Forum of the RSM, Bristol. March 2008.
Thesis
Corbett CRR. Urinary enzyme excretion after renal transplantation and other surgical operations. MChir Thesis 1980; University of Cambridge.
