Mr Ian McDermott is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, specialising purely in just knees. Ian was previously a Consultant in the NHS but he has been in full-time private practice now since 2007. Ian is the founder of the London Sports Orthopaedics practice, which is one of the UK’s leading private orthopaedic practices, and he is based exclusively in Central London, in some of the country’s leading private hospitals.

Ian specialises in complex cases, and about 50% of his caseload is 2nd (3rd, or umpteenth!) opinions and major revision cases.

Ian was the youngest ever surgeon to be elected as a Council Member and Trustee of the Royal College of Surgeons, and Ian was also appointed as an Honorary Professor Associate in the School of Sport & Education at Brunel University. More recently, in August 2024, Ian was appointed as a Professor Emeritus at The London Southbank University, in their Institute of Health and Social Care. Ian has pioneered research into meniscal repair and meniscal replacement, and he is one of the UK’s leading experts in the field of meniscal transplantation. Ian is a designated Hospital Innovations ‘Centre of Excellence’ for meniscal transplantation. Ian is also one of the only surgeons in the UK undertaking ‘Biological Knee Replacement’, and he is the founder and a Past-President of the UK Biological Knee Society.

Ian has also pioneered the use of custom-made high-performance partial and total knee replacements in the UK. He was the first surgeon in the UK to implant a Conformis G2 custom-made knee replacement, and Ian is now part of the Conformis Surgical Visitation Program, teaching other surgeons the techniques involved in implanting custom-made knees.

Ian has also led the way in the UK with the introduction of biological glues in knee surgery, with the use of Vivostat PRF autologous bioabsorbable bioactive biological glue for use with cartilage grafting, and Ian is now a designated ‘Centre of Excellence’ for Vivostat.

Ian prides himself on truly getting to the bottom of a patient’s real issues, which requires time and an obsessive attention to detail. Communication is key, and Ian is well known for providing his patients with very detailed letters summarising their conditions and their treatment options, along with plenty of information about potential surgical solutions.

Ian says: “I don’t rush things. Unlike some surgeons, I talk to my patients properly and engage them fully in the decision-making process. Technically, I’m hopefully right up there at the very top of my game … But there’s a lot more to surgery than just ‘chopping’! — and getting the correct diagnosis and choosing the right treatment options for each individual patient are paramount. This requires time, good communication and insight. Sometimes it’s hard work seeing all the difficult cases and seeing so many people coming for complex second opinions; but it’s also a challenge, a compliment and an honour to have people put their trust in you. My mission in life is to do the very best I can for each and every one of my patients.”