Surgery & Surgical Specialties

This academic section contains academic and clinical staff from surgery and surgery-related specialties including anaesthesia, breast surgery, colorectal & cardiothoracic surgery, general and vascular surgery, ophthalmology, orthopaedic surgery, otorhinolaryngology and urology.

This section is responsible for all surgery related teaching within our medicine clinical curriculum and delivers a focused research programme which supports MCh and PhD student degree programmes. It is led by Professor Ronan Cahill, UCD Professor of Surgery at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital.

Subject Areas

Anaesthesia

The pharmacological inducement of a reversable amnesia, analgesia including the suppression of musculoskeletal responses or reflexes for the purposes of blocking or temporarily removing a pain response.

Heads of Subject: Prof Donal Buggy (Anaesthesia) ; Prof Alistair Nichol (Critical Care Medicine)

Ophthalmology

The branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye. An ophthalmologist is a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems. Since ophthalmologists perform operations on eyes, they are considered to be both surgical and medical specialists.

Head of Subject: Professor Colm O'Brien

Otorhinolaryngology

Also known as ENT (ear, nose and throat), this is the branch of medicine and surgery that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the head and neck.

Head of Subject: Professor Fergal O'Duffy

Surgery

The manual or instrumental interventional procedures through which disease or injury is investigated and/or treated to improve bodily function or appearance.

Head of Subject: Prof Ronan Cahill

Biography: Professor Ronan Cahill

Professor Ronan Cahill graduated MB,BAO,BCh (Hons) from University College Dublin in 1997 and then completed his basic and specialist surgical training in Ireland, gaining both MD by thesis (Health Research Board Clinical Research Fellow) and FRCS by examination. Thereafter, he was a clinical fellow at the IRCAD/EITS Institute in Strasbourg, France from 2007 to 2008 before moving to the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals as senior fellow and then consultant and senior clinical researcher from 2008 to 2010. Ronan returned to Ireland in 2010 as consultant general surgeon (specialist interest in colorectal surgery) at Beaumont Hospital before taking up the position of Professor of Surgery at University College Dublin, and the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in June 2014.

He is a recipient of both the Bennett and Millen Medals (RCSI Millen Lecturer 2010) and was the ASGBI Robert Smith Lecturer in 2014. He has authored over 150 peer reviewed publications, five book chapters and four National Guidelines. He is an editorial board member of five indexed surgical journals, including Colorectal Disease and the European Journal of Surgical Oncology and is a member of the SAGES Research Committee (SAGES Career Development Award recipient 2009). He has a major academic interest in Surgical Innovation and New Technologies and active basic science, clinical and device development research partnerships both nationally and internationally.