About James

Overview and Personal Statement


Mr James Byrne

Mr James Byrne is a Consultant Upper GI Surgeon at University Hospital Southampton in Hampshire, appointed in 2002.

He is Secretary and President Elect of the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society (BOMSS), and Honorary Principal Research Fellow at the University of Southampton.

Professional Statement

I am an experienced specialist upper gastrointestinal and bariatric (metabolic or weight loss) surgeon with 20 years as a consultant. 

Working with patients and understanding their needs and priorities is at the centre of my clinical philosophy as a champion of shared decision making(SDM), and applying this across my clinical practice. SDM is a process whereby clinician and patient act in partnership to make decisions that are focussed on achieving the outcomes that are most important to an individual patient. To achieve this requires understanding of an individual’s specific concerns and aspirations and then for the benefits and risks of different treatment options including not having treatment to be carefully and comprehensively discussed.

 

Deciding on medical and surgical treatment can be stressful and difficult, and adhering to SDM principles means that both patients and clinicians can feel more confident and empowered by the quality of treatment decisions they jointly make.

 

I have been performing major and intermediate abdominal surgery for many years and my clinical surgical practice includes oesophageal and gastric cancer, bariatric-metabolic weight loss surgery, anti-reflux  and hiatus hernia surgery. I am outcome focussed and am proud to work with clinically excellent and expert clinical colleagues. I am a member of specialist multidisciplinary teams treating oesophageal and gastric cancer at University Hospital Southampton and severe and complex obesity at the Spire Hospital Southampton. Delivery of excellent outcomes is truly a team game and it is through working within and across high quality functional teams to ensure these outcomes are delivered. 

 

I believe passionately in the importance of creating high quality scientific evidence to underpin and support decision making by patients and clinicians working closely in partnership with each other in my clinical practice. Through my work within research partnerships I have made a significant contribution to BY-Band Sleeve, the worlds largest study comparing the effectiveness of the three most commonly performed procedures for the treatment of severe and complex obesity, that has recruited over 1,300 patients across 12 UK centres and will report in 2023.

Alongside this I have also led study of novel treatments for type 2 diabetes including a recently published randomised study of the Endobarrier. Reflecting this commitment to surgical research I was Surgery lead for the Wessex Clinical research network from 2017 to 2022.

 

I am currently leading a team working with colleagues at the Universities of Southampton, Bristol, and Oxford that has started a first in human research study of Sirona, developed and manufactured by a local company, Oxford Medical Products. Sirona is taken as a capsule that contains an expandable hyrdrogel that expands in the stomach. This study will determine whether this may be a safe and effective approach to the treatment of obesity. Recognising my contribution to research and teaching I was appointed Honorary Principal Research Fellow at the University of Southampton in 2019.

I am secretary and president elect of the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society (BOMSS) (Council Member 2014-17, Treasurer 2017-2021, and Secretary 2021-date). I have also served as a committee member of the National Bariatric Surgery Registry (NBSR) from 2017 to 2021 as a council member of the Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery (AUGIS) (2017-2021).

Clinical Expertise:

  • Sleeve gastrectomy,
  • Laparoscopic roux Y gastric bypass
  • Laparoscopic gastric banding
  • Revision surgery
  • Oesophagectomy and Gastrectomy
  • Anti-reflux surgery
  • Cholecystectomy
  • Hernia repair