Animal & Veterinary Sciences

• General Inquiries

Leigh has a great depth of experience in anaesthetic and surgical research. He spent 14 years as Senior Scientist in the Departments of Anaesthesia and Pain Management (completing his PhD) and Cardiology at Royal North Shore Hospital. As tutor, then associate lecturer in veterinary anaesthesia at both the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney, he gained ACVSc membership.

Research has focussed on local anaesthesia but includes general anaesthesia and opioid analgetic synergy. Developing novel techniques including chaotic analyses, he builds research equipment and software for standardising algorithmic data analyses. He has researched adult stem-cells, cardio-thoracic surgery, cardiac device development and hyperperfusion.

A philosopher and ethicist, he served for a decade on New South Wales' largest ACEC and elsewhere in animal and human ethics. He consults in anaesthesia and cardiothoracic surgery for human surgical training and research.

Research and Teaching Interests

• Veterinary Anaesthesia and Intensive Care (teaching)
• Anaesthetic physiology & pharmacology (teaching and research)
• Local anaesthetic toxicity and treatment
• Managing side effects of opioid analgesics
• Opioid analgetic synergy
• General anaesthetic toxicity, especially in heart failure
• Heart failure
• Adult stem cell therapy for heart failure treatment
• Cardiac diagnostic imaging
• 3D realtime imaging for assessment of cardiac performance
• Perfusion mapping in individual organs
• Respiratory drug administration
• Hyperperfusion techniques
• Pathophysiology of heart failure treatment
• Cardiac unloading methods
• Organ blood flow manipulation
• Close arterial organ pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics
• Close arterial organ or region specific therapeutics
• Chaotic dynamic modelling of CNS and cardiac behaviour
• Fourier frequency analysis of cardiac (and CNS) performance
• Development of minimally invasive surgical approaches to the heart
• Development of minimally invasive research models in anaesthesia
• Development of minimally invasive approaches major abdomenal surgery