Mr Peter Hodgkinson is a consultant cleft and plastic surgeon and clinical lead for the Newcastle cleft service.
During his university education in Manchester Mr Hodgkinson completed a PhD in cleft lip and palate whilst pursuing his medical degree and graduating with Honours in 1985. His training in general surgery concluded with his FRCS in 1989.
Higher plastic surgical training in Manchester, Slough, Newcastle and South Wales. He concluded with a year in the highly respected Australian Craniofacial Unit in Adelaide, where he was senior registrar and locum consultant.
In Australia, he helped write the Early Management of Severe Burns course that is now the current standard teaching in the UK.
Mr Hodgkinson was appointed as a consultant plastic surgeon in Newcastle in 1996. Initially he had a broad area of specialist practice including cleft surgery, head and neck cancer and breast reconstruction. He introduced mandibular distraction surgery to Newcastle. This surgery is both aesthetic and functional with an almost perfect record of tracheostomy removal in children with small jaws.
Other notable achievements included the development of the craniofacial and skull base service and introduction of craniofacial access surgery as a routine, as well as the first bilateral autologous tissue breast reconstruction in the north-east.
Over time Mr Hodgkinson specialised more in cleft and facial surgery. He has led the Newcastle Cleft Service since it started in 2002. For many years he was the only cleft surgeon in the north-east and in 2014 operated on his 1000th child with a cleft.
Under his leadership the cleft service has grown to become one of the leading centres in the UK with well-established delivery of multidisciplinary care, outcomes exceeding national standards and innovative achievements including an award-winning informational film and many international publications.
Outside cleft Mr Hodgkinson has developed a range of techniques in other areas of surgery including complex rhinoplasty published and presented internationally.
These include the use of the Breathe Implant, skeletal augmentation of the nasal foundation with bone substitute and the wide-spread use of fibrin sealants, improving quality (e.g. cartilage putty) and reducing length of hospital stay.
Functional and aesthetic facial surgery are part of the same spectrum and Mr Hodgkinson was the first surgeon in the north-east to be awarded the Certificate in Cosmetic Surgery by the Royal College of Surgeons in all three major areas of practice (face, breast, trunk).
Mr Hodgkinson recently stood down as head of department of plastic surgery after 8 years but continues to take an active role in the burns service and the treatment of skin cancer.
Mr Hodgkinson is a recent past President of the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland and a Trustee of the Cleft Lip and Palate Association.
Special interests
- Cleft lip and palate – primary and secondary surgery
- Facial plastic surgery– including complex developmental deformity and skeletal distraction
- Complex rhinoplasty – cleft and non-cleft
- Burns and skin cancer
- Aesthetic surgery
