It’s all about the brand: Surgeon accused of branding his initials into a patient’s liver

News reports  say that Simon Bramhall [pictured here], Consultant HPB & Liver Transplant Surgeon in Birmingham, is accused of branding his initials into a transplant patient’s liver. The Telegraph‘s report, by Miranda Prynne, begins:

A surgeon has been suspended after allegedly branding his initials into a transplant patient’s liver. Consultant Simon Bramhall, 48, is accused of burning ‘SB’ onto a patient’s liver as he operated on him. The letters were spotted by a colleague during routine surgery on the unnamed patient. It is now feared the letters may have been imprinted onto hundreds of other transplant recipients….

Dr. Bramhall is a man of letters. His extensive CV lists numerous medical publications, including these:

Use of Marginal Donors.

Garcia CE, Bramhall S, Mirza DF.

Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation 2000;5:50-56.

Management of liver trauma.

Bramhall SR, Buckels J.

British Journal of Surgery 2000;87(4):517-518.

Abdominal wall burns; a late complication of liver transplant.

Singhal A, Bramhall SR, Mutimer D.

Liver Transplantation 2008;14(7):1065-1066.

(Thanks to investigator Scott Langill for bringing this to our attention.)

BONUS: Dr. Bramhill also wrote the colorfully titled:

Purse-string pancreaticojejunostomy following pancreatic resection.

Williams JG, Bramhall SR, Neoptolemos JP.

Digestive Surgery 1997;14:183-186.

BONUS (possibly unrelated):

“Branding of Vascular Surgery,” Bruce A. Perler, Perspectives in vascular surgery and endovascular therapy 20, no. 1 (2008): 6-8.