Staff & Surgeons

Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon at Poole Hospital

When Professor Ilankovan was appointed as Consultant to Dorset in early 1993, he established the Dorset Head and Neck Cancer Service to serve the patient populations of Dorset and Hampshire.

What began with just one Surgeon and a part-time Oncologist has now grown into a team of over six Surgeons and three Oncologists. After 32 years of service as a consultant within the NHS, Professor Ilankovan will step down from the Service in March 2025, although he will continue his surgical practice in the private sector.

He will remain dedicated to providing head and neck cancer care, including diagnosis and surgical management.

Training and Education

• Professor V. Ilankovan is a Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon at Poole Hospital in Dorset and Medical Director of the Wentworth Clinic.
• He obtained his medical degree in 1984 from the Welsh National School of Medicine after initially graduating in dentistry in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
• He received a Fellowship in Surgery, Maxillofacial Surgery and Dentistry from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and England. His post-graduate training took him across the UK from Wales to Scotland to the well-renowned Canniesburn Hospital in Glasgow and then to the southeast, where he finally settled down in Dorset in 1993.
• He also trained at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA and practised in cleft lip and palate surgery in India and additionally trained in head and neck surgery in Beijing, China.

Over 160 Publications in his Name

Professor Ilankovan has more than one hundred and sixty publications in peer-reviewed journals and various chapters in books. His book, entitled, ‘Local Flaps and Facial Reconstruction; ‘a defective based approach’, was also published in April 2015, with a second edition being published in December 2024.

Innovative New Techniques

• His anatomical research into the transconjunctival approach identified a new plane which has revolutionised transconjunctival blepharoplasty (lower eyelid surgery). This anatomical finding is the basis for the “septal reset” approach in a lower blepharoplasty.
• Prof. Ilankovan is a keen promoter of using the calvarial bone (skull bone) in reconstructive surgery and promotes minimal access in surgery.
• In 1998, he published a research paper on the tibial trephine bone grafting technique which won the BAOMS award.
• He published the technique of minimal access neck dissection with simultaneous free flap reconstruction. This is the innovative ‘keyhole’ cancer surgery.
• He is one of the few Maxillofacial Surgeons in the UK who practice and promote facial aesthetic surgery for trainees and surgeons. He is the Founding Fellow and Honorary Secretary of the Association of Facial Plastic Surgeons.
• In 2012, he gave the ‘BAOMS Oration’ at an international joint conference on the topic of; ‘Quest for Aesthetics’ explaining the close association of the past and present techniques of facial reconstruction versus facial rejuvenation and the quest for aesthetic surgery.

Skin Cancer Surgery Service

The landmark presentation has been an instrument for trainees to take up the section of the speciality seriously. He set up the skin cancer surgery service in Dorset, working initially with five Dermatologists. This resulted in publications and presentations on various skin cancer care and management. Past trainees consider his unit as a ‘finishing school’ in head and neck reconstruction. His book, ‘local flaps in facial reconstruction; a defect based approach’ has been used by different specialities who are involved in skin cancer surgery.

Medical Honours and Affiliations

• Professor Ilankovan was honoured in 2011 by the Peking Union Medical School in Beijing with a Professorship in Head and Neck Surgery for his contribution towards this speciality. He is the first overseas surgeon to receive this award.
• Bournemouth University offered a Personal Chair and he has set up the first MSC course in skin cancer.
• He was elected President of the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons in 2014 and his conference at the Edinburgh International Conference was recognised as the best in the last twenty years.
• He was also elected as the Honorary Fellow of the American Association of Maxillofacial Surgeons and the Balkan Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. During his time as the President of BAOMS, he set up Fellowships for trainees to learn areas of speciality which is not available in the day-to-day practice, particularly in robotic surgery, facial reanimation, vascular malformation and aesthetic surgery.  His main contribution now to Facial Aesthetics is introducing a minimal access procedure which simplifies facial aesthetics as a day case under local anaesthetic.
• In July 2024, Professor Ilankovan was honoured with the prestigious President’s Oration by the Asian Association of Maxillo-Facial Surgeons.

Charitable Work and Affiliations

In addition to these clinical duties, he takes exceptional care of patients and their families. He set up the ‘About Face’ charity, which is housed opposite Poole General Hospital and is probably the only Head and Neck Charity in the UK offering these faculties, providing support, counselling, and care for patients and families. The house also has a laboratory for trainees to practice skills and an up-to-date library. Internationally he has set up cleft care centres in India and an orphanage in Sri Lanka.

In December 2024, with great sadness, due to a lack of public interest in the About Face Charity House, it was closed. However, a generous donation of £400,000 was made to the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. This contribution will establish the “Ilankovan’s About Face Fund,” a dedicated Head and Neck research fund. The fund will provide opportunities for senior trainees to pursue research in Head & Neck Cancer.