Endocrine Surgery

The Endocrine surgical unit is a well established service with a long tradition of clinical and academic excellence.


Endocrine surgery at Hammersmith Hospital offers secondary care Thyroid, Parathyroid and Adrenal surgery. It provides super-specialist care to other hospitals for complex surgical cases including primary and re-operative benign thyroid disease, thyroid cancer, hyperparathyroidism and adrenal tumours.


Services include:

    • Care for benign and malignant thyroid disease is offered with an emphasis on multidisciplinary, one-stop care. As the designated thyroid cancer centre for north-west London, only surgeons with a high volume thyroid surgery practice and a special interest in thyroid cancer (Mr Palazzo & Mr Tolley) undertake thyroid cancer surgery.

    • Special interest in minimal access Endocrine (parathyroid, adrenal) surgery.

    • A long standing collaboration with the hospital’s Endocrinology service has now been added to by offering a parathyroidectomy service to the west London regional renal unit.

    • The Endocrine department holds a weekly regional thyroid cancer multidisciplinary meeting (MDM) and a twice-monthly Endocrine surgical MDM for parathyroid, adrenal and neuroendocrine pathology.

Mr Fausto Palazzo

Mr Palazzo is a consultant Endocrine Surgeon and Honorary Senior Lecturer and is clinical lead for Thyroid and Endocrine Surgery (replaceing my John Lynn in 2006). He trained in General and Endocrine Surgery in London , Oxford, Sydney (TS Reeve Clinical Fellow) and Marseille (British Association of Endocrine Surgery Tranvelling Felow). In 2010 he exceded 1600 thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal operations with international standard outcomes. In 2010 alone he performed over 270 endocine operations including over 110 parathyroidectomies and 30 laparoscopic and retroperitoneoscopic adrenalectomies.

He is a member of the Executive Committee of the British Association of Endocrine and Thyroid Surgeons where he holds the role of lead for National Guidelines. He is a member of the European Society of Endocrine Surgeons and International Association of Endocrine Surgeons and a council member of the Endocrine Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He teaches and lectures internationally on Endocrine surgery and is editor of a surgical training manual and author of several book chapters and over fifty Endocrine publications. He is a faculty member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England / BAETS Endocrine Surgery Masterclass.

Awards: TS Reeve International Clinical Fellow in Endocrine Surgery 2003/4 - Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia. British Association of Endocrine Surgery Travelling Fellow 2004/5 at La Timone Univeristy Hospital, France. Endocrine surgical research fellow St Bartholomew’s Hospital 1999-2001 - Master of Surgery (MS) University of London.

Mr Palazzo has a specialist interest in goitre and thyroid cancer; hyperparathyroidism, renal parathyroid disease, adrenal tumours includeing phaeochromocytoma and adrenal cancer surgery, MEN and other Endocrine surgical syndromes.

Surgical Procedures: thyroidectomy and parathyroidectomy (including minimally invasive surgery); re-operative thyroid and parathyroid surgery; parathyroidectomy for primary and renal hyperparathyroidism, lymph node surgery; larparoscopic and retroperitoneoscopic adrenalectomy.

Private Services

Mr Jonathan Ramsay

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Mr Ramsay has been a Consultant Urologist at Hammersmith and Charing Cross Hospitals since 1988. His research interests and publications include the methods and outcomes of sperm retrieval, vasectomy reversal and the genetic causes of infertility. His practice focuses on the consultation, investigation and diagnosis of male infertility. His surgical expertise allows the retrieval of sperm using modern techniques to obtain sperm without ejaculation. This can be used as an alternative to, or in conjunction with, corrective surgery to maximise the chances of a successful pregnancy.

Mr Ramsay has a large male fertility practice specialising in azoospermia, micro TESE ( microscopic testicular sperm extraction) and synchronous ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection in to the egg) with donor sperm backup.

Private Services

Mr Neil Tolley

Mr Tolley is an consultant ENT – Head and Neck Surgeon. He graduated from the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff in 1982. He was awarded a Masters Degree in Nasal Physiology, before undertaking specialist training at the Royal National Throat, Nose & Ear Hosital, Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton. He has undertaken specialist overseas fellowships in America, South Africa and Austrailia. He has been awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh (1988) and England (1989). In 1994, he was appointed as a Consultant ENT surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital and has been lead clinical for eight years. He is the Education Director for ENT training in North Thames and a Regional Advisor to the Royal College of Surgeons (England).

His research interest is in the applications of telerobotics to thyroid and parathyroid surgery. Mr Tolley has a specialist interest in thyroid and parathyroid surgery.

Private Services