Mr Brian Leatherbarrow

Mr Brian Leatherbarrow is a Consultant Ophthalmic and Oculoplastic Surgeon, with over 35 years of experience in ophthalmology. He was an NHS Consultant at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital 1992-2013. He retired from private clinical practice in 2023. His medical practice is now confined to medicolegal work. He is on the GMC specialist register. 

Mr Leatherbarrow's major areas of expertise are oculoplastic, orbital, and lacrimal surgery for which he has a national and international reputation. He specialises in all aspects of eyelid, orbital and lacrimal surgery including: blepharoptosis (drooping eyelids), cosmetic eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty), brow lift surgery, eyelid and orbital trauma including orbital fractures, eyelid and orbital tumours, eyelid reconstructive surgery, enucleation/ evisceration/exenteration (eye removal), eye socket reconstructive surgery, thyroid eye disease, the watering eye and its surgical management, eyelid and upper facial surgery for facial palsy, facial dermal filler injections and the management of associated complications. He also has expertise in the diagnosis and management of general ophthalmic disorders. 

Mr Leatherbarrow has been involved in medicolegal reporting for over 30 years undertaking approximately 60-70 specialist Liability/Causation/Condition/ Prognosis medical reports per year. Over the course of his consultant career, he has produced over 3,000 specialist medical reports and has provided expert witness evidence in court for 3 cases. 

He co-owns 2 optometry practices (Johnson & Leatherbarrow Opticians in Sale and Poynton, Cheshire) where medicolegal patients can be seen in conjunction with his expert optometrist colleagues, who undertake the required optometric tests for patients (refraction, visual field tests, OCT scans, corneal topography, retinal photography, tear function assessment, specialist contact lens assessments, and orthoptic tests). 

He has undertaken Bond Solon training courses on medicolegal report writing and courtroom skills. He holds the Cardiff University Law School Medico-Legal Foundation Certificate. 

He has attended the Bond Solon annual conference in London every year since 2014. He became a full member of The Faculty of Expert Witnesses in 2013. Mr Leatherbarrow is the single author of a major textbook ‘Oculoplastic Surgery’. The third edition was published by Thieme in October 2019. It is sold worldwide and has been translated into Chinese and Spanish. He is also the author of 6 book chapters on a variety of oculoplastic subjects including a chapter on blepharoplasty in Scott-Browns Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, 2018. Mr Leatherbarrow has published over 100 papers in a wide range of medical journals including the British Journal of Ophthalmology, EYE, Orbit, Ophthalmology, and Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery.

His general ophthalmic training was undertaken at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, Manchester. His subspecialist training in oculoplastic surgery was at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, and at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, USA. Firefox https://www.expertwitness.co.uk/admin/users/686298785b37e274d6.

He joined the Faculty of Expert Witnesses (FEW) in 2013; he was an inter-specialty member of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) 2009-2022; he co-founded the British Oculoplastic Surgery Society (BOPSS) in 2003 and was President of the Society from 2011 to 2014; he was a member of the European Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ESOPRS) 1993-2023; he was a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology 1993-2021; he is a Fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.