Mr Abrie Botha

AUGIS Regional Representative: North Thames

Training
MBChB degree from Stellenbosch University, South Africa. General Surgical Training at the Royal London, Broomfield, Whittington, Middlesex and Whipps Cross hospitals, England. FRCS(Eng) and FRCS(Gen) surgical diplomas.

Research
Two year trauma/critical care research fellowship in Denver, Colorado. MD degree from the University of London on neutrophil function and systemic inflammation after trauma. I currently perform clinical research on oesophageal cancer resection margins and myotomy for oesophageal motility disorders.

Clinical Interests
I am currently an Upper GI, Laparoscopic and General Surgeon at Guy's&St Thomas' NHS Trust. My main surgical interests are oesophago-gastric cancer, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, motility disorders of the oesophagus, large hiatus hernias and obesity.
I organize an annual international oesophago-gastric symposium at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. National and international expert speakers lead an in-depth discussion on a different oesophago-gastric topic each year. We have had 8 excellent symposia thus far.

Guy's & St Thomas' is the South EAst Thames cancer network centre and I chair the weekly oesophago-gastric cancer MDM.

I have a major interest in laparoscopic surgery and am pursuing this to the benefit of the patients and the trust. In addition to laparoscopic oesophago-gastric surgery I also perform laparoscopic hernia repair and cholecystectomy on our day surgery unit.
As head of an abdominal firm for 3rd year medical students I organize their clinical training and end of firm assessment. I also examine in the OSCE of the final MBBS examination.

I am on the faculty of three educational courses at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, i.e. Definitive Surgical Trauma Skills (DSTS), Update in Emergency Surgery, and Pitfalls in Emergency Surgery.