Mr Arun Ranganathan 2020-04-10 Person 5 5 0

This review comes six and a half weeks after I had minimally invasive spinal surgery conducted by Professor Ranganathan to remove a slipped and fragmented dark disc in my L4-L5 region that had been pressing on my nerve. For many months prior to surgery, I had been suffering intense and chronic pain in my right leg, together with a range of other symptoms, such as throbbing that thundered down to my foot, flames of pain in my outer shin and numbness in parts of my leg and foot. By the time I went to see Professor Ranganathan, I had made it a habit to navigate each day in terms of managing the pain as best as I could and was worn down with it. Professor Ranganathan studied the results of the MRI scan and very clearly laid out the cause of my problem, as well as possible ways forward. His manner and the clarity with which he spoke were very reassuring. I went on to have a steroid shot that somewhat diminished the pain and allowed me to travel as planned. As he had said, the effects of the shot wore off after six weeks and the pain grew intense again. I went back to see him. At every meeting, I noticed that he listened and observed carefully, remembered the details of my case from one appointment to the next, guided me through what to expect and treated me very holistically, bearing in mind my concerns and priorities. Although he offered me a second steroid shot in case I wanted to delay surgery, I felt a lot of trust in him and had no hesitation in going for surgery. The technique of minimally invasive spinal surgery meant, as he has told me, that my muscles were not affected by the incision. As such, at its worst, the surgical wound felt slightly sore, but never painful. The recovery since has been almost magical, in that the chronic leg pain has vanished, I feel entirely relieved and am embarking on returning to the things I love, such as flamenco dance. I should add that this was my first ever operation. Not only had I never had surgery before, but I also know people who have had extremely unfortunate or difficult experiences with spinal surgery. Under normal circumstances, I would have been petrified. In actual fact, Professor Ranganathan made me feel totally reassured. His manner made me feel that he was knowledgeable and clear about what the outcomes might be. He inspires a great deal of trust. In addition, once the operation was over, I noted that he works with an absolutely fantastic team, who are informed, kind and incredibly caring. Most importantly, Professor Ranganathan is a skilled, innovative and incredibly gifted surgeon and I am very fortunate to have been in his expert care.