A U.K.-based surgeon who was suspended last year for conducting colorectal surgeries that caused harm to hundreds of women has had nine of his research papers flagged and one withdrawn.
In July 2024, Tony Dixon was suspended for six months from Southmead Hospital and Spire Hospital in Bristol, England, by a tribunal at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) after an investigation found the surgeries caused harm in 259 of his patients who underwent a procedure to treat rectal prolapse.
The MPTS panel extended the suspension in January for another six months, during which time Dixon is unable to operate on patients, a spokesperson for the U.K.’s General Medical Council (GMC) told Retraction Watch.
Last month, Dixon earned a series of notices on research papers he had coauthored, all published in Colorectal Disease, a Wiley title. These were prompted by “issues raised at various investigations including a recent GMC investigation, and allegations which are being further investigated by the GMC,” said Sue Clark, the journal’s editor-in-chief and consultant colorectal surgeon at St Mark’s Hospital in London.
The withdrawn paper, “Outcomes for Patients with apparent Chronic Idiopathic Pelvic Pain and associated Pelvic Floor Disorders undergoing Laparoscopic Ventral Mesh Rectopexy,” had been accepted by Colorectal Disease in 2017 but not published, pending the outcome of the investigation, Clark told us.
The journal has removed the article from its website and replaced it with a withdrawal notice:
The withdrawal has been agreed due to concerns raised regarding the legitimacy of the data reported and allegations of a lack of informed consent from patients who underwent the surgical procedure reported within.
The notice states the article was withdrawn by agreement between the journal’s editors-in-chief, the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, and John Wiley & Sons.
The other nine papers with expressions of concern involve similar concerns but state the investigations are ongoing. The six papers are as follows:
- “A Prospective Evaluation of Stapled Haemorrhoidopexy/Rectal Mucosectomy in the Management of 3rd and 4th Degree Haemorrhoids,” published in 2007, 29 citations.
- “Laparoscopic Ventral Rectopexy for External Rectal Prolapse is Safe and Effective in the Elderly. Does This Make Perineal Procedures Obsolete?” published in 2010, 103 citations.
- “Outcome of Laparoscopic Ventral Mesh Rectopexy for External Rectal Prolapse,” published in 2014, 44 citations.
- “Laparoscopic Ventral Mesh Rectopexy in Male Patients with Internal or External Rectal Prolapse,” published in 2014, 28 citations.
- “Medium-Term Results of Stapled Transanal Rectal Resection (STARR) for Obstructed Defecation and Symptomatic Rectal-Anal Intussusception,” published in 2010, 32 citations.
- “Laparoscopic Ventral Mesh Rectopexy in the Management of Solitary Rectal Ulcer Syndrome: A Cause for Optimism?” published in 2012, 23 citations.
- “Use of the Ethicon EndoSurgery Anoscope Retractor for Anorectal Procedures Other than Stapled Haemorrhoidectomy,” published in 2012, two citations.
- “Laparoscopic ventral rectopexy, posterior colporrhaphy and vaginal sacrocolpopexy for the treatment of recto-genital prolapse and mechanical outlet obstruction,” published in 2007, 131 citations.
- “Consensus on ventral rectopexy: report of a panel of experts,” published in 2013, 92 citations.
In 2017, Spire Healthcare began conducting a review into Dixon’s patients who had undergone laparoscopic ventral mesh rectopexy to correct rectal prolapse. As part of the review of 544 patients who had seen the surgeon over two decades, Spire found that harm had been caused in 259 cases. The report defines the harm as failure to adequately investigate patients prior to offering the procedure, failure to adequately offer alternative treatments and poor consent, by not adequately discussing the risks and benefits of the procedure.
A follow-up inquiry by Southmead hospital found Dixon had operated on 203 patients unnecessarily.
A spokesperson for the North Bristol NHS Trust told us Dixon was dismissed from his duties in 2019.
Dixon could not be reached for comment but he has previously denied all allegations levelled against him in the media.
The next hearing for Dixon is scheduled to begin May 12.
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