More than 200 patients suffered harm after being given unnecessary bowel operations by a consultant colorectal surgeon, a hospital trust has admitted. Dozens of people were left in severe pain after Tony Dixon gave them pelvic floor surgery using artificial mesh at two hospitals in Bristol.
The surgeon was suspended in 2017 after concerns were first raised, and sacked by North Bristol NHS Trust in 2019. Mr Dixon pioneered the use of artificial mesh to lift prolapsed bowels, a technique known as laparoscopic ventral mesh rectopexy (LVMR), which is often caused by childbirth.
He performed the operations at the trust’s Southmead Hospital, and also at the Spire Hospital – a private facility, where NHS patients were regularly referred for treatment. On Thursday (May 26), North Bristol NHS Trust published the results of a review of its patients that underwent LMVR surgery from Mr Dixon at the two hospitals between 2007 and 2017.
