Mr Rai is a spinal consultant at St John’s & St Elizabeth Hospital, St Johns Wood, London and Spire Norwich Hospital, Norwich and is also a NHS consultant (appointed in 2001). Mr Rai treats patients from across the UK and abroad at his practice. He treats a wide range of problems, such as disc herniations in the neck and lower back, spinal deformities such as scoliosis and kyphosis in adults and children, plus trauma, infections and tumours. His approach emphasises non-invasive procedures and he refers to surgery only when other conservative treatment options have been explored.
Q: As a specialist in spinal surgery, could you tell us more about your experience and training background in this field?
A: I have been a consultant spinal surgeon for just under 20 years and have been involved in over 10,000 major spinal operations. I was elected by my peers as president of the British Association of Spinal Surgeons in 2016 and I have trained many spinal surgeons who work across the UK. I also regularly lecture at spinal meetings both on the national and international circuit. In 2012, I was involved in setting up the British spine registry (BSR) to give surgeons / providers of care and patients the opportunity to capture valuable clinical and patient outcome data and thereby be able to objectively assess the results of surgical intervention. The database within the BSR (with over 80,000 patients) is one of the largest in the country and allows my patients and London Norwich Spine to objectively look at our results to increase clinical understanding of operations and drive improvements in patient safety.
Q: You recently presented your data at this year’s EUROSPINE conference, looking at the risk factors of prolapsed disc post-surgery. Could you tell us more about the study and its results?
A: The study looked at primary single-level lumbar discectomy, collected over a 10-year period. The aim was to investigate the risk factors for two-year same-side, same-level recurrent disc herniation (sRDH). We prospectively collected patient demographics, clinical factors and patient-reported outcome measures, including the Oswestry Disability Index (O