Peter Butler (surgeon)

Peter E M Butler, MD, FRCSI, FRCS, FRCS(Plast) is Professor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at University College London. He is consultant plastic surgeon and head of the face transplantation team at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust in London, United Kingdom. He is a founder and Director of the Center for Reconstructive Surgery at the Royal Free Hospital, which was launched in November by the The Right Honourable George Osborne, MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer at No 11 Downing Street in November 2013.

Education and training

The eldest son of Professor Norman Butler, the former head of the school of Dentistry at Trinity College, Dublin, Peter graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Physicians of Ireland, obtaining diplomas MB BCh LRCPSI in 1987. He did his general surgical training in Dublin and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (FRCS) in 1991 and the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS) in 1992.

Butler has an active clinical and laboratory based research program. One of his main areas of research is facial transplantation. The work he has been involved in has received awards from the New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, the Plastic Surgery Research Council, USA, the British Association of Plastic Surgeons and Society of Academic & Research Surgery.

Face transplantation

Peter Butler began the experimental work leading towards facial transplantation in 1993 at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, this work continues today. On returning to the UK he set up the clinical research programme in facial transplantation in 2002.^[1] This programme was one of the first in the world. Two other teams existed at that time one at Louisville, Kentucky, USA and the other at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, USA. In 2004 a team led by Dr. Maria Siemionow at the Cleveland Clinic became the first institution to approve this surgery.^[2] There was considerable resistance to facial transplantation taking place in the UK.^[3] In October 2006, after overcoming the ethical hurdles Peter Butler's team received permission from the North London Research Ethics Committee to go ahead with a series of four full face transplant operations to be carried out at the Royal Free Hospital.^[4] Some news outlets have speculated that their team is likely to be the first to perform such a transplant.^{[5] [6]} However, Dr. Butler stated in an 27 October press release that their team "will not be rushed" and "It may be many months before we are ready to carry out an operation."^[4] The costs of the operation is to be funded by a charity, 'The Face Trust", set up by Peter Butler in 2006.^[7] Patient selection for facial transplantation is currently ongoing.

Personal life

Peter is married to Annabel Heseltine, well known daughter of former British deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine. He has four children, Mungo, Isabella, Rafferty and Monty; all of whom have been diagnosed with dyslexia. The family live in Wiltshire, and have an apartment in London^[8]

Additional Links

• The Face Trust
• BBC Report
• Science Museum
• Information on Peter Butler

References