Mark Whiteley

Mark Whiteley is a British vascular surgeon. In 1995 he became a lecturer at Oxford University. Whiteley was the first surgeon in the UK to perform keyhole surgery on patients for the treatment of varicose veins. In 2001 became the founder of The Whiteley Clinic is located in Guildford, Surrey.^[2] In 2013 he founded the Leg Ulcer Charity.

Education and early medical career

Whiteley qualified as a doctor at St Bartholomew's Hospital London in 1986. Following his training as a surgeon, in 1992 he began specializing in vascular surgery. In 1994 he completed work for a Masters in Surgery, and became a lecturer at Oxford University in 1995. In 1998 he was appointed a consultant vascular surgeon in Guildford. In March 1999 he performed the first UK keyhole surgery to eliminate varicose veins.^[3] In 2000 he, alongside Judy Holdstock, then invented the TRLOP to treat perforating veins using a more advanced keyhole technique.^[4] In 2013 Whiteley was named a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey.^[5]

The Whiteley Clinic

In July 2001 Whiteley founded The Whiteley Clinic where he continued his surgical career.^[4]

Varicose veins surgery

In 2000 The Daily Telegraph wrote of Whiteley's keyhole techniques that, "Most patients still need a general anaesthetic and a night in hospital. Some may have tiny cuts where surface veins are removed, but the risk of post-operative infection is reduced because there is no wound. Mr Whiteley said the procedure had been 100 per cent successful in 130 patients so far treated. Between three and 26 per cent of patients who had traditional surgery suffered a recurrence." The surgical technique also drastically reduced recovery time, from a few weeks to a few days.^[6] In 2004 Whiteley was the first UK physician to describe the endovenous heat induced thrombosis for the treatment of varicose veins.^[7] In 2012 Whiteley began using a new method of treating varicose veins using a kind of medical superglue called VenaSeal, which reduced the procedure time to approximately half an hour and removed the need for a general anaesthetic.^[8]

Sweat glands surgery

In the late 1990s Whiteley began administering the hyperhydrosis surgery using the keyhole technique to treat patients with over-active sweat glands.^[9] In the mid-2000s Whiteley began administering iontophoresis at his clinic in order to treat the problem.^[10] In 2009 Whiteley became the first British medical doctor to offer the Laser Sweat Ablation service, which treats axillary hyperhidrosis. The process starts with a local anesthetic, followed by a laser surgery that permanently kills sweat glands involved in the condition and removes them via suction. The result is a reduction in excessive sweating in those with over-active sweat glands.^[2] According to Whiteley full recovery from the surgery is completed within four to seven hours for most patients.^[11]

Media

Whiteley is a frequent guest on BBC in discussion of both his personal life and his work with curing varicose veins and over-active sweat glands.^{[12][13][14][15]} He has also been interviewed about his personal medical philosophy and the reasons not to have surgery by the The Guardian^[16] and The Daily Mail.^[17] Whiteley self-published the book Understanding Venous Reflux - the cause of varicose veins and venous leg ulcers in 2011.^[18]

References

External links

• The Whiteley Clinic
• Leg Ulcer Charity