Scott Rutherford is a consultant neurosurgeon at Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester, a role he has held since 2006. Scott completed his undergraduate medical training in Cape Town before moving to the UK in 1995. He has trained in neurosurgery in Leeds and Manchester including a skull base fellowship in Manchester and Paris.
He specialises in skull base surgery, which involves treating conditions affecting the structures at the base of the brain including the trigeminal nerve. His subspecialty interest has seen him lead and grow the Manchester skull base unit into the largest in the UK. He is currently president of the British Skull Base Society.
Scott’s work in skull base includes an active interest in the management of facial pain including trigeminal neuralgia. He established a multidisciplinary facial pain clinic at Salford Royal in 2013 which has assessed over 600 patients with facial pain. This clinic focuses on holistic management of facial pain including addressing medical management, surgical options and psychological aspects of pain. He has personally performed more than 400 surgical procedures for trigeminal neuralgia, which through a process of careful patient selection and surgical technique produce excellent pain outcomes. He has published close to 100 scientific papers and book chapters including on the subject of trigeminal neuralgia. He continues to train subspecialty fellows in skull base surgery and facial pain.
