Mr Khai Lam
Consultant Spinal Surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Spinal Unit and London Bridge Hospital
He qualified from Nottingham University and completed his spinal surgery training at the Centre for Spinal Surgery and Studies, Nottingham under the auspices of Professor Robert Mulholland and Mr John Webb. His work is covered in over 100 published scientific papers and presentations both nationally and internationally. He receives tertiary spinal referrals from a regional population of 10 million people. He continues to be a regular visiting Professor to the Middle East and Egypt.
Major spinal interests include:
- lumbar and cervical disc degeneration (and revision surgery)
- disc replacements (global reference centre)
- sciatica
- minimal invasive/access spine surgery (global reference centre)
- adult and childhood deformities/scoliosis (and complex revision surgery)
- kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty (UK training centre)
- trauma, fractures, tumour and infections
- inflammatory disorders
- discography
- injection therapies (facet injection, nerve root block, epidural)
Artificial Disc Replacement:
Working as an opinion leader in this field, his degenerative disc practice has noted successful treatment through surgical removal of the disc pain source in disabled patients. Traditionally this has been done with spinal fusion, but newly available artificial total disc replacement (lumbar and cervical) has greatly improved patient outcomes.
Keyhole or Minimal Invasive Spine Surgery (MISS):
For many years he has been a pioneer in the use of MISS/laparoscopic surgery. He has lectured extensively and taught this technique internationally. This approach has now evolved into minimal access spine surgery (MASS) whereby practising small 3 - 4 cm incisions greatly improve the patient’s cosmesis but more importantly reduces blood loss, morbidity, post-operative pain, hospital discharge and rehabilitation. Furthermore, using MASS techniques in conjunction with artificial lumbar disc replacement has evolved into the concept of motion preservation surgery. This technique shows great promise in reducing morbidity as compared with posterior spinal fusion and harvesting of bone graft. He is a key opinion leader in minimal invasive spine surgery and member of the AO Expert Group for Atraumatic Access and Navigation for spinal surgery
Adult and paediatric scoliosis and deformities:
He is proficient in scoliosis and deformity surgery and regularly performs these complex spinal procedures, including revision surgery and application of minimal access spine surgery (via 8 -10 cm incisions). When applying MASS techniques in scoliosis surgery, patients are enjoying improved cosmesis but more importantly, reduced blood loss, morbidity, post-operative pain and superior rehabilitation and earlier discharge from hospital. His paediatric deformity practise is mainly based at the award winning purpose built Evelina Children’s Hospital http://www.evelinaappeal.org
Professional activities:
He belongs to the AO spine teaching faculty (International, European and United Kingdom) and AO TK Expert Group in Atraumatic Access and Navigation to the Spine or Minimal Invasive Spinal Surgery. He is a founding member of an IGASS (International Group for the Advancement of Spinal Science) that was formed in conjunction with other pioneering European Spine Surgeons. The group will act as key opinion leaders on the future of spinal surgery with direct links to the US study groups (deformity, low back and trauma). The group will be involved in randomised studies, paper reviews, spine education as well as the training of young spinal surgeons via fellowships of varying durations. He is also on the editorial board of the European Spine Journal and this year nominated to be the global reference centre for minimal access anterior lumbar surgery covering all spinal disorders.
Research Activities:
He is involved in prospective studies on lumbar disc arthroplasty, discography, 3D ultrasound of scoliosis, twin studies, gait analysis of patients with low back pain and musculo-skeletal tissue engineering (e.g. stem cell research and tissue regeneration).