Spine Dragon site logo: Michael J H McCarthy, Consultant Spinal Surgeon

About Me: Summary

Portrait of Michael McCarthy

I graduated with a first class honours degree in medicine from the University of Nottingham in 1999. As part of my undergraduate degree I spent time at the Cook County Trauma Unit in Chicago, where they filmed the television series ER. This provided me with experience and a greater understanding of complex severe trauma management. Upon completion of my undergraduate studies I embarked on my career in Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery by firstly accomplishing three and a half years of basic surgical training in Nottingham, where I carefully selected the surgical specialities that would best assist me in developing the necessary surgical skills as a future spinal surgeon. These included six-month rotations working in Accident and Emergency, General Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurosurgery and Plastic Surgery. By excelling in my Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons examinations, I was awarded the opportunity to undertake a one year research fellowship in spinal surgery at the world renowned Centre for Spinal Surgery at the Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham. My research from this year has been presented both Nationally and Internationally and has been published in International Medical Journals.

Australian Portrait of Michael McCarthy

My higher surgical training in Trauma and Orthopaedics was based in the South West Peninsula Deanery on the Specialist Registrar Training rotation. Whereas the majority of surgeons choose to spend one to two years subspecialising, after completing my Fellowship Examinations in Trauma and Orthopaedics at the Royal College of Surgeons I chose to spend a further three years specialising in spinal surgery. This enabled me to train under the skilful experienced hands of several world-renowned spinal surgeons including a year at the internationally recognised AO Spine Centre in Brisbane, Australia.

I commenced as a full time Spinal Consultant at University Hospital of Wales and University Hospital Llandough, Cardiff in 2012. Although I have been fully trained in Trauma and Orthopaedics I now work purely as a spinal surgeon. I carry out all aspects of adult and paediatric spinal surgery (excluding intradural pathology and skull base pathology). My specialist interests are: adult and paediatric spinal deformity, spinal trauma and all aspects of degenerative spinal pathology.