Andrew William Morrison
Authors: Gavin Morrison
Journal: BMJ (2006)

​AndrewAndrew Morrison led the field in ground-breaking surgery for inner earconditions, acoustic tumour surgery, and the earliest multi-channel cochlear implantation. His career spanned from the 1950s to the 1990s, and he was involved with the NHS during perhaps its greatest years of optimism and throughout a period of rapid advancement in surgery and medicine in general.



Figure 1



Ear surgery also evolved exponentially during this time, because of the development of precise high speed drills, and, more importantly, the operating microscope. Microsurgery came of age, and he was one of the exponents of this thanks to a velvety and precise surgical skill.

In the early 1960s he was influenced by the House Otologic Institute in California and was instrumental in the development of the trans-labyrinthine surgical approach for removal of acoustic nerve tumours. He was the first surgeon in Britain to undertake this operation, which, because of the superior results and much improved recovery for the patient, gained hold. Throughout Europe and America it became one of the mainstay operations for removal of acoustic nerve tumours from the posterior fossa of the brain. The legacy of this surgical approach, working through the bone of the ear to reach the brain tumour, has allowed many thousands to benefit from the expertise of following generations of surgeons over the past 40 years.

Similarly, Andrew Morrison was a pioneer and refiner of surgical technique for stapedectomy operations, which restore hearing to patients suffering from otosclerosis. He was one of the first to study and publish details of the hereditary pattern and look at the chromosomes of this condition, for which the genes are currently still under investigation. This surgery is delicate, and risks destroying all hearing permanently. Morrison was, however, a dextrous and highly skilled operator, able to publish outstanding results with hardly any disappointing outcomes in the last 1000 operations.

Heading a national group, Project Ear, in the late 1970s and 1980s, he was at the heart of the earliest developments in cochlear implantation. Before this, only a single electrode placed outside the cochlea had been attempted. The Project Ear group developed its own purpose-built hardware and speech processing, and was among the first to undertake multi-channel intra-cochlear electrodes, which proved successful.

His other major contribution to deaf-ness and dizziness, extending until his death, was his study and treatment of Meniere's disease. His observant and innovative mind led to new medical and surgical procedures. In his 70s, he became an expert in genetics, studying the genome in the subgroup of patients who suffer from familial Meniere's disease, and searching for candidate genes. This funded research is being continued by his coworkers, Mark Bailey in Glasgow, and his son, Gavin Morrison.

Andrew William Morrison was born to Scottish parents. His infant years were spent in Huelva, southern Spain, where his father was a mining engineer. Andrew qualified at Glasgow in 1948, and as a preregistration house surgeon at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary he lived on the surgical ward for six months. In those days, only two weekends away were granted during this time. Watching the ships leave port from the hospital window, he determined to experience life further afield, and upon full medical registration he joined the Merchant Navy.

As a 23 year old ship's surgeon, he sailed to South Africa and beyond, and showed his early surgical nerve in successfully undertaking an emergency lower limb amputation on the deck of the ship after a crew member was trapped and crushed by heavy equipment.

He was commissioned to the Royal Army Medical Corps for his national service, and was posted to Germany, where he met his wife.

After early ENT experience in Carlisle, he moved to London, becoming a registrar at the London Hospital in Whitechapel, and a first assistant (senior registrar) from 1956 to 1959. His first consultant appointment was at Whipps Cross Hospital from 1959 to 1965, and he returned to the London Hospital as a consultant otologist from 1964 to 1986. He was also appointed a consultant surgeon at the Post-Graduate Institute, the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, where he worked from 1965 until 1979. He was a lecturer at this institute and for the University of London.

In the 1960s, he was also one of the first directors and a trustee of the British Academic Conferences in Otolaryngology. He remained a member of the general and academic committees for much of his life, and this conference grew to become one of the foremost international meetings for the dissemination of ideas within the specialty. In 1995 he was accorded the honour of becoming master of the British Academic Conference.

He developed an interest and expertise in medicolegal work, and was a council member of the Medical Defence Union between 1971 and 1996, advising in a professional capacity as well as working with counsel in the High Court as an expert witness.

He was one of very few British surgeons to have been recognised by the American Otologic Society, when he was made an honorary member in 1985.

He leaves a wife, Maureen; two children; and three grandchildren.

Andrew William Morrison, former consultant ear, nose, and throat surgeon London (b 1925; q Glasgow 1948; FRCS, DLO), d 6 January 2006.