Mr Stuart Harrisson

Mr Stuart Harrisson is a Neurosurgery and Spinal Surgery expert witness. He was appointed as a Consultant Neurosurgeon and Spinal Surgeon at Royal Stoke University Hospital in 2016 whilst serving in the British Army, and has then been employed substantively by the NHS since 2019. He specialises in general neurosurgery and spinal surgery, with particular expertise in degenerative spinal conditions, intradural spinal pathology, hydrocephalus, syringomyelia, spinal tumours, spinal trauma, head injury and traumatic brain injury.

His current clinical practice combines elective spinal surgery with general cranial neurosurgery, alongside participation in both cranial neurosurgery and spinal surgery on-call rotas. He undertakes procedures including spinal decompression, discectomy, microdiscectomy, spinal fusion and anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, and regularly manages complex disorders affecting the brain, spine and central nervous system.

Mr Harrisson has held senior service roles as Clinical Lead for Neurosurgery between 2020 and 2024, and as Neurotrauma Lead since 2016. His authority in neurotrauma is supported by a Doctorate in Medicine focused on biomarkers of traumatic brain injury, including blast injury, and his published work across neurosurgery and trauma.

Mr Stuart Harrisson has been undertaking medico legal work since 2022 and accepts instructions in clinical negligence and personal injury matters. He is also able to provide expert opinion in forensic and criminal cases, industrial disease matters and fitness to practise proceedings where neurosurgical or spinal issues are relevant.

His medico legal practice includes screening reports, breach of duty, causation, combined breach and causation, and condition and prognosis opinions. He is instructed in cases involving general neurosurgery and spinal surgery, including spinal decompression, discectomy, microdiscectomy, spinal fusion, anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, hydrocephalus, spinal tumours, spinal trauma, spinal injuries, head injury, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord tumours. His reports assist solicitors in addressing disputed neurosurgical and spinal issues, particularly where liability, causation, injury severity or long-term prognosis requires specialist clinical interpretation.

Mr Harrisson’s clinical interests centre on the assessment and operative management of spinal and neurosurgical conditions affecting adults, particularly where symptoms arise from compression, instability, trauma or pathology within the central nervous system. His spinal practice includes degenerative conditions requiring decompression or discectomy, cervical disc disease requiring anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, and more complex cases involving spinal fusion, spinal tumours and intradural pathology.

He also manages patients with cranial neurosurgical conditions, including disorders of cerebrospinal fluid circulation such as hydrocephalus and syringomyelia. His day-to-day practice involves assessing neurological symptoms, interpreting clinical and radiological findings, determining whether surgical intervention is appropriate, and managing patients through operative and non-operative pathways.

A significant area of his work relates to neurotrauma, including head injury, traumatic brain injury, spinal trauma and spinal cord injury. This includes the acute assessment of injury severity, surgical decision-making where required, and consideration of the likely functional and neurological consequences of brain or spinal injury.

Mr Harrisson has contributed to neurosurgical and trauma research, with more than 20 publications and several book chapter contributions in these areas. His academic work includes doctoral research on biomarkers of traumatic brain injury, with a particular focus on blast injury, and he was awarded the Cairns Campbell-Connolly Prize for Neurotrauma by the Society of British Neurological Surgeons in 2015.