Mr Amar Bhavsar is a Consultant Neurosurgeon at HMT St Hugh’s Hospital in Grimsby, sub-specialising in complex spinal surgery. He completed his neurosurgical training in the West Midlands and a post-CCT complex spinal fellowship at the Walton Centre in Liverpool, one of the UK’s major neurosciences centres. He was awarded the British Association of Spine Surgeons Travelling Fellowship and completed an observership in Toronto with Professor Michael Fehlings, an internationally recognised authority on spinal cord injury. He also works within the neurosurgical spinal team at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

Back and neck problems are where people most often get stuck. Pain that radiates down a leg or an arm, numbness or weakness, symptoms that have outlasted physiotherapy and painkillers. The useful thing a spinal surgeon does first is not surgery, it is a clear explanation of what the scan actually shows and whether it accounts for your symptoms. A good proportion of people leave that conversation reassured that they do not need an operation.

About Mr Bhavsar

Mr Bhavsar qualified in medicine in 2007, having intercalated a BSc with honours in Neuroscience at Queen Mary and Westfield College in London. He gained his Intercollegiate MRCS from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2012 and his FRCS in Surgical Neurology in 2018.

He trained across a number of UK neurosurgical units and completed his neurosurgical training in the West Midlands, gaining his Certificate of Completion of Training in Neurosurgery in 2019.

He then undertook a highly competitive post-CCT senior complex spinal fellowship at the Walton Centre in Liverpool, the UK’s only specialist hospital dedicated to neurology, neurosurgery and pain management. The fellowship covered both the neurosurgical and orthopaedic principles of spinal surgery, which is unusual and means his practice draws on both traditions rather than one.

He was awarded the British Association of Spine Surgeons Travelling Fellowship and completed an observership in Toronto with Professor Michael Fehlings, whose work on spinal cord injury and cervical myelopathy is internationally recognised.

He is a Consultant Neurosurgeon at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, working within the neurosurgical spinal team, and has published research in the neurosurgical literature including on spinal cord injury.

Areas of expertise

Lower back and leg

• Lower back pain
• Sciatica
• Lumbar disc prolapse and slipped disc
• Lumbar spinal stenosis
• Nerve root compression
• Degenerative disc disease
• Spondylolisthesis
• Cauda equina symptoms assessment

Neck and arm

• Neck pain
• Brachialgia and arm pain from the neck
• Cervical disc prolapse
• Cervical spinal stenosis
• Cervical myelopathy
• Degenerative cervical spine disease

Complex spinal conditions

• Complex and revision spinal surgery
• Spinal deformity assessment
• Spinal tumours
• Spinal cord compression

Assessment and second opinion

• Interpretation of MRI and CT spine imaging
• Second opinion on spinal surgery
• Assessment of whether surgery is appropriate
• Non-surgical management advice