Mr Adam Stearns

I have been a consultant in general and colorectal surgery at Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital since 2016. My main interests are in colorectal cancer, while maintaining a keen interest in the diagnosis of bowel disorders, benign colorectal surgery and hernia surgery. I am an experienced and advanced laparoscopic (keyhole) surgeon, and offer minimally invasive surgery to most patients undergoing major colorectal surgery. My outpatient clinics particularly focus on the diagnosis, management and prevention of benign anal and rectal pathology, including haemorrhoids, fistula, fissures, pilonidal sinus disease, and prolapse. I see many patients with defaecatory problems including incontinence, soiling and obstructive defaecation. I also assess patients with complex diverticular disease and inflammatory bowel disease needing surgical intervention. I have specialist interests in appendix problems, and liaise with national referral centres in Basingstoke and Manchester where appropriate. I am experienced in colonoscopy, in diagnosis and treatment of most polyps, and the diagnosis of other conditions including cancer. I trained in Oxford, qualifying in 2002, and underwent basic surgical training in Glasgow. After a 3-year research fellowship in Harvard Medical School, Boston (for which I was awarded a DPhil from Oxford), I underwent higher surgical training in East of England, including posts in Norfolk & Norwich and Cambridge. After entry onto the specialist register, I did specialist fellowships in advanced laparoscopic colorectal surgery at St Marks Hospital, London, and peritoneal malignancy including cytoreductive surgery and heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy at The Christie, Manchester. At Norfolk & Norwich, I have introduced surgery for colorectal peritoneal metastases, and we are the only unit in East of England offering cytoreductive surgery and heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). I am currently Service (Clinical) Director for General Surgery at Norfolk & Norwich, having previously been the Chair for the colorectal cancer multidisciplinary team and lead for the 2-week-wait colorectal cancer pathway, the largest such pathway in the United Kingdom. I have a longstanding research background, and remain active in research with ongoing national and international collaborations. I have particular interests in patients' quality of life after colorectal surgery, and in advanced colonic cancer surgery. I have given invited talks to a number of national and international meetings, including patient groups such as Ileostomy Association. I am committed to surgical training, and have been invited faculty on a number of courses arranged by the national colorectal trainee body. I am a longstanding faculty member on a European specialty association course, teaching advanced colonic cancer surgery (complete mesocolic excision) - a highly specialist technique only performed in a small number of UK centres.

Haemorrhoids; Fistula in Ano; Bowel functional disorders; Colonoscopy; Colorectal cancer; Appendix problems and appendicitis; hernia surgery; stomas and stoma complications