Mr Luis Miguel Couceiro Soares

Mr Luis Soares is a Consultant Laparoscopic Surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital. He is now in his 6th year as consultant at the Royal Free. He is currently the lead for gallbladder surgery at the Barnet and Chase Farm Units of the Royal Free Hospital.

About Mr Luis Miguel Couceiro Soares

He qualified in 1992 after studying medicine at Porto University Medical School. He has trained extensively in laparoscopic surgery since 1995 having undertaken his training in Portugal (Porto and Lisbon), France (Strasbourg), Spain (Barcelona) and USA (Seatlle).

Mr.Soares broad training and international fellowships in laparoscopic surgery have enabled him to develop special interests within the broad field of laparoscopic surgery – his specialist interests include; laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair plus all different kinds of laparoscopic abdominal wall hernia repairs and laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Previously to his appointment at the Royal Free, he worked for 20 years as a colorectal and emergency surgeon in Porto at the Centro Hospital do Porto. This is a central hospital in the beautiful city of Porto and has been awarded “Best Portuguese Hospital” by the Portuguese health authority.

Clinical profile

Apart from being the lead for laparoscopic gallbladder surgery, he also performs most of the laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair cases at Barnet and Chase Farm and has more than 400 cases done with a recurrence rate lower than 0,5%. This technique allows for less post- operative pain, a faster recovery and fewer incidences of wound infection as only three 5 mm ports are used.

In 2008 he founded and was the President of the Portuguese Minimally Invasive Surgery Society until 2012 and since them he has been organizing and coordinating the society annual congress and the twice yearly laparoscopic courses. He is currently the society treasurer.

Mr. Soares has three sons; the oldest is 17 and is currently studying aerospacial engineering at Hertfordshire University. Mr. Soares is a keen amateur photographer, an active scuba diver and has been for many years a motorsport driver and currently races in a Caterham Super Seven in the Super Seven by Kia trophy.

Mr. Soares speaks fluently English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian.