Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah

Professional statement

Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah is a highly distinguished consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon. With more than 25 years of experience, he is internationally recognised for his expertise in cosmetic surgery without scarring, combining a unique approach that incorporates elements of field work, academia and humanitarianism.

In London, Professor Abu-Sittah currently sees patients at 121 Harley Street. His highly-skilled practice focuses on face and body treatment procedures, including facelift, scarless lip lift, scarless chin augmentation, minimal access browlift, blepharoplasty and non-surgical rhinoplasty procedures.

Professor Abu-Sittah qualified from the University of Glasgow and completed his postgraduate training in London. Following his specialist registrar training, he went on to accomplish three prestigious fellowships: a paediatric craniofacial surgery fellowship and a cleft surgery fellowship at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Kids, and later, a further trauma reconstruction fellowship at the Royal London Hospital.

He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2010 before relocating to Lebanon a year later, where he was appointed Head of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Aesthetic Surgery at the renowned American University of Beirut, known as Middle East’s foremost medical centre.

During this time, Professor Abu-Sittah notably led Lebanon's first augmented reality operation, in which he guided a surgeon from Gaza to reconstruct the hand of a child. He additionally co-founded the Conflict Medicine Program, a curriculum first-of-its-kind designed to train health professionals in the treatment, recovery and rehabilitation of war injuries and trauma-related afflictions.

Throughout his distinguished trajectory, Professor Abu-Sittah has balanced his clinical work with service as a war surgeon in conflict zones, including Iraq, South Lebanon and Gaza. He is also a consultant for the World Health Organisation’s Operational Trauma Initiative and a trustee at the International Network for Aid Relief and Assistance and at Medical Aid for Palestinians, providing assisted reconstructive surgery for adults and children injured by war.

Further to his clinical work, Professor Abu-Sittah is an honorary senior clinical lecturer at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London and is on the board of advisors of the Global Research Group on Burn Trauma at the National Institute for Health and Care Research, where he is also a reviewer.

Prior to this, Professor Abu-Sittah directed a course for the Royal College of Surgeons on surgical skills in austere and military environments. As a world-leading figure in his speciality, he has also featured extensively in the media, including the BBC, the CNN and the Wall Street Journal.