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Syed Aftab
Consultant in Spinal Orthopaedic Surgery, Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS TrustDirectory:
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Mr Syed Aftab is a Consultant Spinal Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Royal London (Barts Health NHS Trust). He studied medicine at Pembroke College, Cambridge University and Edinburgh University. He underwent higher surgical training in Orthopaedics and Spinal Surgery on the London NE Thames rotation at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore.
He also gained a Master of Science at University College London in Trauma and Orthopaedics during his training. Syed completed advanced fellowships in Spinal Surgery at the Royal London Hospital. Furthermore, he continues to broaden his experience with visitations to international centres of excellence for spinal surgery (Antwerp Belgium, Bordeaux France, Neustadt Germany and Orlando USA).
Syed has been pioneering the iMAS technique in the UK, using micro access techniques developed by Dr Robert Masson at Neurospine Institute, Orlando, USA (a Federally accredited Centre of Excellence).
Syed believes that the best outcomes for patients can only be achieved when decisions are carefully considered and works within the framework of a multidisciplinary team. He is the Clinical Effectiveness Lead for Orthopaedics at the Royal London and is actively involved in teaching other doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.
Syed is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. He both teaches and organises the spinal teaching programme for postgraduates studying trauma and orthopaedics.
He has published widely in a number of peer-reviewed medical journals and is actively involved in research into spinal surgery. Syed has presented at national and international conferences.
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Back pain is very common, affecting most people at some time in their life. In most people it is short lived but in some the pain can last for longer periods of time. Most patients are able to manage their pain with painkillers. Other treatments that may be helpful include manipulation therapy such as physiotherapy, osteopathy or chiropractors. Acupuncture and TENS are sometimes useful. If these simple measures do not bring relief it is appropriate to consider surgical treatments. Your specialist will arrange an MRI to look for specific abnormalities which may be helped by surgery. If particular wear is seen within the facet joints then they may recommend an injection of steroid into the joints to help with your symptoms. If the discs appear to be the worn then they may recommend further investigations including discography to identify whether surgery such as spinal fusion may be of benefit.
Spinal fusion can be used to treat back pain associated with degenerative disc disease. If you have chronic back pain which has not responded to non-operative treatments then your specialist may discuss this with you. If only a single disc is worn on your MRI scan then removing that disc and fusing the spine may help with the pain. If multiple discs are affected then a procedure called discography may be used to help identify which disc is responsible for the pain.Spinal fusion for back pain improves the symptoms in between 50% to 90% of patients. When used to treat loosening or slippage of the vertebrae; (spondylolisthesis) fusing the spine has high success rates with 90% of patients noticing relief from their sciatic leg pains and over two thirds of patients noticing an improvement in their back pain.Various routes may be used to gain access to the affected area. Most commonly an incision is made in the middle of the lower back but sometimes an incision is made in the lower abdomen.Usually screws and rods are inserted to hold the vertebrae in position. Bone removed during the operation may be reinserted along with artificial bone in order to fuse the bones together. Sometimes the whole disc at the affected level is removed and small cages or spacers are inserted. Although most commonly used to treat conditions related to wear and tear (degenerative conditions) this procedure is also regularly used to treat fractures and tumours of the spine.The common risks of the procedure include infection and spinal fluid leakage. Major complications such as nerve injury and paralysis are very rare occurring in less than one in 200 cases.
