Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals
Team of Doctors
Dr Rajagopalan Krishnan
Dr Rajagopalan Krishnan
Dr Rajagopalan Krishnan
Dr Rajagopalan Krishnan, Senior Consultant Orthopedics, Spine Surgery and Joint Replacement, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals
MBBS, MS, MCH (Hons, L'pool), PHD (London), FRCSOrth
Spine Surgeon
35 Yrs+
Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi
- Dr Krishnan qualified from Maulana Azad Medical College in 1976 and went on to complete MS from Central Institute of Orthopedics at Safdarjang Hospital in 1980.
- After Senior Residency, he obtained further training and qualifications in the UK, including MCH from Liverpool with Normal Roberts medal, PHD from Royal Postgraduate Medical School and Hammersmith Hospital in London and the UK Intercollegiate Specialty Board Examination of the Surgical Royal Colleges.
- He joined Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in 1995 as Senior Consultant in Orthopedics and set up a tertiary spine service.
- He was appointed in 1999 as full time Consultant Orthopedic Spinal Surgeon at Mid-Cheshire NHS Trust with private practice at BMI South Cheshire Hospital and Spire Stretton Hospital. He set up a spine service from scratch in East and South Cheshire and his practice focused exclusively on spinal surgery.
- He trained specialist registrars from the Mersey Rotation, in spine surgery. His practice for well over 15 years has been exclusively spine surgery both in the UK and since his return to Apollo in April 2012.
- He treats spinal disorders ranging the gamut from disc and degenerative disorders to spinal deformities, spinal infections, spinal trauma and spinal tumours.
- He has accumulated vast experience in spinal surgery, having run a service for 10 years at Mid-Cheshire which dealt with more than 3000 OPD spine patients and he performed over 350 spine surgeries every year as well as a busy private practice in Cheshire, including patients from North Wales.
- His surgical experience ranges from simple cervical and lumbar discectomies, to cervical and lumbar disc replacements, vertebrectomies, TESSYS, reconstruction for spinal trauma, spinal tumours and the full spectrum of spinal deformities.
- He audits every patient’s outcome and all his patients have to complete international protocols including Oswestry Disability Index, Canadian Neck Disability Index and his own Spinal Deformity Protocol, thereby ensuring full documentation for his patients.
- He was invited by Apollo colleagues in 2011 to visit Delhi to do some complex spinal surgery. The patients were turned down at other Delhi hospitals and were extremely complex, of a kind rarely seen in the West as diagnosis and treatment in the NHS is done quite early due to the UK GP referral system. Both the complexity and the gratifying outcomes were life changing moments for him and he decided to return to Delhi in 2012, having turned down a senior consultant position in Singapore.
- Past member, British Orthopedic Association
- Association of Spine Surgeons of India
- Delhi Spine Society
Awards And Achievements
- Gold Medal in MCH, Liverpool, 1984. PHD, University of London, 1993.
- He held successful academic grants from the Arthritis & Rheumatism Council, the Wolfson Foundation, Hammersmith & Queen Charlotte Special Health Authority and Proteus Molecular Design, all in the UK.
- He supervised postdoctoral fellows in his research, which enabled him to continue his clinical work and interests without interruption.
- Two of his research assistants went on to obtain PHD in related projects.
- He has special interest in complex spine surgery including manubriosternotomy for upper thoracic anterior instrumentation, jaw splitting craniocervical surgery, total sacrectomy with lumbopelvic reconstruction, skull separation cervical osteotomy, complex revision of failed spine surgery and shape memory metal rod and staple instrumentation systems for spinal deformities. He has developed his own techniques for erosive Sacral Tarlov cysts and anterior long and short segment instrumented correction for pediatric and adult spinal deformities.
- He is on the Faculty of the Annual MAMC Instructional Course in Orthopedics at Maulana Azad Medical College for MS and DNB students from all over India. He is also committed to teaching a 4-month Basic Spine Course at MAMC every year for postgraduates and intends to develop Advanced Spine Workshops in due course