Our Consultants

Mr. Ashley Poynton

Clinical Director Spine and Orthopaedics

Spinal Surgery

  • Cervical spine disorders. Degenerative conditions of the spine. Scoliosis. Spinal deformity. Spinal trauma. Spinal tumours.

  • MD FRCSI FRCS (Tr & Orth)

    Mr. Ashley Poynton is a committed and highly experienced spinal surgeon with international fellowship training in spinal surgery.

    Having completed his orthopaedic higher surgical training under the auspices of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2001 Mr. Poynton was awarded The Certificate of Specialist Training and admitted onto the Specialist Register of the Irish Medical Council.

    Following on from this he underwent further sub-speciality training over two years based at the Hospital for Special Surgery (Cornel University), and Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital, Manhattan, New York, USA. This spinal fellowship training programme is world class and involved high volume exposure to all aspects of spinal surgery, including minimally invasive surgery, degenerative, deformity, trauma and spinal oncology. It also involved a fellowship in metabolic bone diseases, a combination of laboratory and clinical research focusing particularly on biology of bone healing and fusion enhancement. Mr. Poynton also has a strong academic background with an MD from TCD in 2000 and over 50 publications in peer review journals along with five textbook chapters.

    Following his return from fellowship in 2003, Mr. Poynton was appointed to the Mater Misericoridae Hospital (incorporating the National Spinal Injuries Unit), Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital and the National Rehabilitation Unit as a Consultant Orthopaedic Spine Surgeon. His major focus was to develop and enhance the National Spinal Injuries Unit and create a multidisciplinary team capable of undertaking highly complex spinal surgery.

    Mr. Poynton is now working in full-time private practice since 2011. He has created The Poynton SpineCare Institute and aims to develop the Institute into the premier spinal clinic in Ireland for the delivery of comprehensive multidisciplinary care for a wide spectrum of spinal disorders.

    Mr. Poynton was appointed as the clinical director for spine and orthopaedics at Mater Private Network in 2023.

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Mr. Darren F. Lui

Director of Scoliosis Surgery & Spinal Oncology

Spinal Surgery

  • Paediatric & adult spinal surgery. Scoliosis. Non fusion spinal surgery. Vertebral body tethering. Bipolar growing rods. Lumbar & cervical disc replacement. Spinal oncology: curative separation surgery or oligometastases. Robotic spinal surgery & spinal navigation. Revision spinal surgery.

  • Mr. Darren F. Lui is a Spinal Surgery Consultant at Mater Private Network in Dublin and the Director of Scoliosis Surgery and Spinal Oncology. 

    Mr. Lui is Fellowship-trained in Deformity and Complex Spinal Surgery, having graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) in 2001 and completed a Master’s degree in Surgery in 2005. He subsequently worked as a Complex Spinal Surgery Fellow in hospitals in Hong Kong, Ireland and England, and was appointed as a consultant in 2016. He worked at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital before moving to join St. George's University Hospital in London where he was part of the Atkinson Morley Neuroscience team working with both Neurosurgeons and Orthopaedic Spinal Surgeons. As a Level 1 Trauma Centre they handled one of the largest networks in the UK. He worked as a consultant for 10 years before moving to Mater Private Network in Dublin.

    While an Honorary Consultant at St. George's University London, Mr. Lui managed and founded the “Ahead of the Curve Scoliosis Spinal Research” charity, and the large team of researchers associated with it. He also worked at The Fortius Clinic Marylebone, Central London, and had access privileges to bring those patients to HCA London Bridge, HCA Harley Street, HCA Portland Women and Children's Hospital and The London Clinic.

    Mr. Lui has expertise in the following areas:

    • Anterior spinal surgery - cervical, thoracotomy, retroperitoneal lumbar

    • Robotic / navigation surgery

    • Minimally invasive surgery

    • Paediatric orthopaedic surgery

    • Cervical (neck) surgery

    • Balloon and radiofrequency kyphoplasty

    • Spinal fusion

    • Non-fusion techniques

    • Posterior surgery

    • Revision spinal surgery

    • Complex spinal surgery

    • Sciatica

    • Spinal deformity

    • Spine tumours and infections

    • Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

    • Adult scoliosis

    • Kyphosis

    • Paediatric deformity

    • Scheuermann's disease

    Special Interests

    Mr. Lui's specialist interest is in adolescent and paediatric deformity surgery such as scoliosis and kyphosis. His expertise also covers a wide range of procedures, from revision, anterior, and complex spinal surgery, to failed back syndrome, scoliosis and kyphosis surgery.

    He also sees patients with other conditions, including back and leg pain or neck and arm pain, with a focus on anterior non-fusion surgery as cervical or lumbar disc replacements.

    Mr. Lui has a specialist interest in spinal oncology, especially the treatment of oligo-metastases of the spine, where he has helped pioneer techniques that can lead to "curative spinal surgery" with the eradication of spinal tumours by combining carbon fibre instrumentation, radiofrequency ablation and stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SBRT). He worked with The Royal Marsden Hospital and St George’s University Hospital pushing forward with one of the world’s largest carbon fibre separation surgery cohorts.

    At Mater Private Network in Dublin, Mr. Lui is currently accepting GP referrals for patients aged 16 and over with spinal conditions/ scoliosis that require surgery.

  • Mr. Lui has an active and keen interest in research including into trauma and orthopaedics as well as spine surgery, and he enjoys teaching and sharing his knowledge with others. Together with his research team they have 17 prizes in education and 50 invited lectures. They have over 300 podium presentations, 150 posters and 70 peer-reviewed publications as well as authoring 12 books. His interest in teaching has led to supervising two Masters' degrees in Science and a patent for a spinal implant invention.

    Mr. Lui helped St George's Hospital publish MIS anterior scoliosis surgery including non-fusion techniques (Vertebral Body Tethering, VBT) or Mini Fusions, and he was involved in their ethically approved multicentre prospective trial. He was also involved in a multicentre retrospective study looking at Bipolar Growing Rods with Oxford and Birmingham. He worked at the Duchess of Kent Hospital in Hong Kong where some of the first MAGEC rods were used and introduced them at St George's hospital.

Mr. Deb Roy

Spinal Surgery

  • Cervical and lumbar disc prolapse. Degenerative conditions of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine. Spinal deformity. Spinal tumours. Spinal trauma. Minimally invasive spine surgery.

  • MRCS(Ed) FRCS (Neurosurgery) 

    Having completed his basic surgical training in North East deanery in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he was awarded MRCS(Ed) and CCBST by the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. Mr Roy then completed his higher specialist training in Neurosurgery in the West Midlands. 

    He was the winner of 'Travelling Fellowship from North American Spine Society' (NASS) in 2013, which gave him the opportunity to observe and learn from the best spinal surgeons in the United States of America. After finishing his exit exams in Neurosurgery, he did his first Orthopaedic & Spine fellowship at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (Australia) for one year in 2015 with Prof Brian Freeman - this was an AO Spine recognised fellowship.  

    He completed his second Neurosurgical spinal fellowship in Salford Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester (UK) in 2016 with Mr John Leach - this is recognised by both “Royal College of Surgeons of England” and “British Association of Spinal Surgeons (BASS)”. 

    Following the completion of his fellowship, he was appointed Consultant Spinal Neurosurgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. This is the largest Neurosurgical department and the leading Level 1 trauma centre in the UK. He has completed multiple international and national podium presentations, written book chapters and published articles in peer reviewed journals. 

Mr. Peter Samuels

Spinal Surgery

  • Mr. Peter Samuels completed his MBChB in 1997 at the University of Pretoria and worked at various public hospitals throughout South Africa. He then obtained a Diploma in Anaesthetics in 2001 with the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. He chose to broaden his career during 2002 in the United Kingdom and Ireland where he worked as a RMO in various hospitals, ICU departments and emergency rescue teams. 

    Upon return to South Africa, Mr. Samuels worked within the departments of general surgery, anaesthetics and trauma until becoming a neurosurgery registrar in 2006 at the University of Pretoria. He qualified with a Master of Medicine in Neurosurgery in 2011 and began working as a cranial and spinal surgeon in private practice at various hospitals on the north and south coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal (South Africa). 

    Mr. Samuels then completed the Fellowship of Neurosurgery qualification in 2017 with the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. He continued with private practice in South African until February 2023, when he made the decision to relocate to Ireland and work as a spinal surgeon with the team at the Poynton SpineCare Institute and Mater PrivateNetwork.

    He has obtained many other certifications to date including ABIME, ATLS Instructor (South African Trauma Association), Gamma Knife Radiosurgery (University of Pittsburgh, USA), Endoscopic Spinal Surgery (Joimax, Austria), Microvascular Neurosurgery (Macquarie University, Australia) and Neuromodulation (Medtronic, France). He continues to attend webinars and workshops on both cranial and spinal surgery for professional development.

  • His special interests include degenerative conditions of the cervical and lumbar spine, spinal trauma, spinal cord injuries, interventional pain management, minimally invasive and endoscopic spine surgery.  He also manages non-operative conditions of the spine and has a keen interest in spinal rehabilitation. 

    • Eurospine

    • European Association of Neurosurgical Societies

    • American Association of Neurological Surgery

    • South African Medico-legal Association

    • South African Medical Association

    • World Institute of Pain

    • World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies.

    • AO Spine

    • Society of Neurosurgeons of South Africa

    • The South African Spine Society

    • The Trauma Society of South Africa

Mr. Andreas Tarnaris

Spinal Surgery

  • Mr. Andreas Tarnaris M.D. MD (Res), FRCS (SN) is a Functional Neurosurgeon with special interest in chronic pain management. He completed his postgraduate training in the UK and received subspecialty fellowship training in Toronto (Canada), Liverpool (UK) and Oxford (UK). He worked as an NHS Consultant in Southampton General Hospital as part of the Neuromodulation team. In 2024, he joined Mater Private Network in Dublin.

  • His clinical interests include neuromodulation for patients suffering with chronic pain and minimally invasive interventional pain procedures for patients with spinal problems (neck, arm, back and leg pain).

  • Mr. Tarnaris has a long-standing interest in translational research with numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals. Mr. Tarnaris has a widely recognized academic background with a postgraduate research degree awarded from University College London (MD Res) that focused on clinical/medical laboratory science/research. He has 35 publications in peer-reviewed journals, more than 1,200 citations, and an h-index of 21 as of 2023. 

    His work has been quoted by many of his peers and he has been a member of groups promoting standards and evidence-based surgical practice. Throughout his career, he has built an extensive network of clinicians from different clinical fields through his participation in various academic groups, committees, and learned societies, including Society of British Neurological Surgeons (SBNS), British Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (BSSFN), British Neurosurgical Trainees Association (BNTA), and International Society for Hydrocephalus and CSF disorders. His present research interest focuses on patient-reported outcomes and pain physiology.

    Mr. Tarnaris has been an expert advisor to the European Union with regards to the safety of medical devices. He is one of the co-authors of the “Neurotechnology Regulation -The Regulatory Horizons Council report” for the UK Government in 2022. Due to his experience and understanding of the regulatory framework, standards, and requirements he is aware of the current state-of-the-art and upcoming technologies, and he can choose the right device for the right patient when treatment requires to do so.

Mr. Paolo Rizzo

Spinal Surgery

  • Degenerative pathology of lumbosacral, thoracic and cervical spine. Minimally invasive and complex spine surgery. Extradural and intradural pathology, spinal trauma, spinal infection

  • Mr. Paolo Rizzo is an expert spinal neurosurgeon devoted to excellence in patient care and wellbeing, with 15 years’ experience as a consultant spinal and general neurosurgeon.

    He completed his training at Padova University Medical School (2000), Italy, discussing his MD thesis developed between the Padova University Department of Neurosurgery and the Mestre-Venice department of Radiotherapy. He completed his neurosurgical training (2008) with the Verona University Department of Neurosciences after working as a trainee at the National Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Milan and in different institutions in the UK. With the Verona Neurosurgical department he developed his interest in spinal neurosurgery and clinical research on the intraoperative neurophysiological evaluation in the acute phase of medullary trauma (Prof. Bricolo, Gerosa, Sala).

    He has had extensive clinical experience in centres in Italy and the UK, with laboratory experience in Milan (Centro Nazionale Neurologico Carlo Besta) and Baltimore, MD, USA (Hunterian’s Lab, Johns Hopkins University). He was a consultant neurosurgeon with special interest in spine between 2009 and 2021 with the Bolzano Hospital in northern Italy, Dolomites region.

    He has worked as a senior spinal fellow with the Oxford University Department of Neurosurgery and with the National Spinal Injury Unit, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin. He was appointed consultant neurosurgeon with the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin and continues his activity devoted to patient care in all aspects of spine conditions. In 2024, he joined Mater Private Network in Dublin.

    A passionate patient’s advocate, Mr Rizzo has strong experience with patient care in multiple healthcare settings. He is an empathetic communicator and a strong believer in constructive communication amongst healthcare workers to optimize patients’ experience and outcomes.

  • Mr. Paolo Rizzo has been active in clinical research with the Verona, Bolzano and Oxford institutions and involved in education and training of colleagues and healthcare personnel, in addition to being an instructor for the European Resuscitation Council European Trauma Course. He is a member of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies, AO Spine, the National Neurotrauma Society and the Italian Society of Neurosurgeons (Spine and Trauma). He is published in peer reviewed journals and book chapters in the fields of spine surgery, trauma and oncology neurosurgery.