BSc(Hons), MBChB, FRCSEd(Tr&Orth), MFSTEd, DM

Education

Professor Aarvold graduated from medical school at the University of Edinburgh in 2002. After house jobs in Edinburgh, including at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children (RHSC), he worked in Sydney (Australia) as resident medical officer, Nairobi (Kenya) doing paediatric HIV medicine, Oxford as anatomy demonstrator and St George’s Hospital and Royal Marsden Hospital (London) for basic surgical training. He moved to Wessex in 2007 for higher surgical training in trauma and orthopaedic surgery, which included two years of researching stem cell therapy in Professor Richard Oreffo’s tissue engineering lab. He did a fellowship in paediatric orthopaedic surgery at British Columbia Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada in 2014-15 and was appointed to Southampton Children’s Hospital as consultant surgeon in November 2015. He was awarded a personal Chair in orthopaedic surgery at University of Southampton in August 2024.

Experience

Professor Aarvold has sub-speciality expertise in developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH), Perthes Disease, paediatric trauma, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disorders.

He holds weekly clinics dedicated to DDH, continuing Professor Nick Clarke’s legacy, with all children offered the chance to be part of the Global Hip Dysplasia Registry (GHDR). Together with Ms Kirsten Elliott and Mr Ed Lindisfarne he manages the Pavlik harness programme for infants with DDH, plus operations for those that come to surgical treatment. He leads the tertiary referral network for Perthes disease.

Professor Aarvold runs specialist paediatric neuromuscular clinics with consultant colleagues (Mr Simon Bennet, Mr Darius Rad, Mr Munzir Gaboura, Mr Rohit Gangadharan) alongside the specialist multi-disciplinary therapy team. He is a member of the British Society for Surgery in Cerebral Palsy (BSSCP) and treats children with the condition using botox injections, soft tissue releases and bone operations.

He also does visiting clinics at Rosewood School, for pupils with profound learning difficulties and physical/medical needs. He runs specialist paediatric orthopaedic clinics in Guernsey, alongside Mr Richard Hopcroft. He visits Eswatini in southern Africa on a yearly basis to provide specialist paediatric orthopaedic support, where negligible exists in the country at present.

Professor Aarvold has been awarded travelling fellowships to specialist centres in Italy, Australia, Canada and USA, plus given invited lectures in the Middle East, India and North America.

Research

Professor Aarvold is a clinical-academic, awarded an Honorary Chair at the University of Southampton in August 2024 and appointed to the UHS Research Leaders Programme (RLP) in April 2025. He runs a research programme focusing on developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH), Perthes disease, osteonecrosis and cerebral palsy. He supervises research projects for students and post-graduate surgeons, plus acts as Principal Investigator and Chief Investigator on national and multi-national trials.

He has served the research board of the British Society for Children’s Orthopaedic Surgery (BSCOS) from 2018 to 2024 and sits medical advisory boards for the Global Hip Dysplasia Registry (GHDR), the charity DDH-UK and the UK Perthes Kids Foundation.

He has published 60+ scientific papers, h-index 18, and has presented his work at 150+ scientific conferences around the world. He has won awards for best research papers at BSCOS, Gauvain, British Orthopaedic Research Society (BORS) and UK National Stem Cells Network conferences. His thesis on bone tissue engineering was awarded the Syme Medal by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Teaching

Professor Aarvold ran the regional post-graduate education programme for orthopaedic trainee surgeons in Wessex from 2016 to 2020. He is a member of the Wessex Surgical Training Committee (STC), sits on training review panels and is an assigned educational supervisor for orthopaedic registrars and fellows. He is a personal academic tutor for medical students and oversees undergraduate education in children's orthopaedics at Southampton medical school, involved in curriculum development, lecturing and tutorials. He was appointed to the Faculty of Surgical Trainers in 2015 and was voted Wessex orthopaedic Trainer of the Year 2017-18.

He is married to Alice, a consultant anaesthetist at UHS, has three kids and enjoys watching any films involving Patrick Swayze.

Contact

You can contact Professor Aarvold via his secretary Helen Williams - call 023 8120 5758 or email paedorthopaedics@uhs.nhs.uk.