ON THE TITLE
MISTER.
In England, a surgeon who passes the examinations of the Royal
College gives up the title of Doctor. The older title is the higher one.
It is earned twice.
108 HARLEY STREET · LONDON W1
MR JULIAN
ASHWORTH
FRCS (C-Th) · Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon
ROYAL BROMPTON HOSPITAL · IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON
THE SURGEON
Thirty-one years
inside the chest.
Julian Ashworth repairs hearts for a living and declines to be dramatic about it. Cambridge, the Royal College, a mitral fellowship in Ohio, then twenty-three years as a consultant at the Royal Brompton — the record is long, public, and audited.
His practice at 108 Harley Street is deliberately narrow: the operations he has done most, done best, done thousands of times. He operates on one person at a time, and tells each of them precisely what he intends to do before he does precisely that.
- 1994FRCS (Cardiothoracic Surgery)
- 2009Professor of Cardiac Surgery, Imperial College London
- 2019Hunterian Professor, Royal College of Surgeons
THE RECORD
A career, kept
like a chart.
- 1986
MB BChir, University of Cambridge
First in year, clinical medicine. Elected to a college scholarship.
- 1991
MRCS, Royal College of Surgeons of England
Basic surgical training, St Thomas’ Hospital, London.
- 1994
FRCS (Cardiothoracic Surgery)
Admitted Fellow. Gives up “Doctor”; becomes “Mister”.
- 1996
Fellowship in Mitral Valve Repair, Cleveland, Ohio
Two years at the highest-volume valve centre in the world.
- 2001
Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Royal Brompton Hospital
Appointed at thirty-eight. Builds the mitral repair programme.
- 2009
Professor of Cardiac Surgery, Imperial College London
Chair in outcomes research. 148 peer-reviewed papers to date.
- 2014
Private practice established, 108 Harley Street
Consulting rooms two doors from where he first trained a registrar.
- 2019
Hunterian Professor, Royal College of Surgeons
The College’s oldest honour, for the mitral repair series.
- 2024
Five-thousandth recorded operation
Entered in the log like the first: date, procedure, outcome.
THE WORK
Selected cases.
Every operation is entered in the log. Three are shown here as they were imaged — each plate develops as it crosses the plane.
Mitral valve repair
Posterior leaflet prolapse. Repair, not replacement — the patient keeps her own valve, and her own future.
Off-pump revascularisation
Three grafts placed on a beating heart. No bypass machine; nothing stopped that did not need stopping.
Valve-sparing aortic root replacement
The root rebuilt, the patient’s own valve re-suspended inside it. A younger heart keeps its own parts.
THE PRACTICE
Five operations,
done extremely well.
A narrow practice is a deliberate one. Referrals are welcomed from cardiologists worldwide; every list is planned, and every operation performed, by Mr Ashworth personally.
-
LIST 01
Mitral & tricuspid valve repair
Repair over replacement, wherever anatomy allows. A repaired valve needs no anticoagulation and lasts a lifetime.
-
LIST 02
Coronary revascularisation, off-pump
Grafting on the beating heart, arterial conduits first. Fewer transfusions, faster recoveries.
-
LIST 03
Aortic root & arch surgery
Valve-sparing root replacement and elective arch repair, planned from CT reconstruction to final echo.
-
LIST 04
Surgery for atrial fibrillation
The Cox-maze procedure, alone or alongside valve repair. Rhythm restored in the same anaesthetic.
-
LIST 05
Second opinions & remote review
Imaging reviewed personally, worldwide, within five working days. Sometimes the best operation is none.
THE LOG, TO DATE
OUTCOMES AUDITED ANNUALLY · PUBLISHED VIA NICOR NATIONAL REGISTRY
“He told me exactly what he would do.
PATIENT · MITRAL REPAIR · 2023
Then he did exactly that.”
CONSULTATIONS · TUESDAYS & THURSDAYS
MR JULIAN ASHWORTH FRCS (C-TH) · CARDIOTHORACIC SURGEON REQUEST A CONSULTATION 108 HARLEY STREET, LONDON W1G 6AJ+44 (0)20 7946 0192 · PRACTICE@MRASHWORTH.CO.UK