Dr. Palash Gupta

Consultant in orthopaedic surgery, treating the joints, bones and soft tissue that carry you — arthritic hips and knees, sports injuries, fractures and the pain that no longer responds to physiotherapy or injections. Joint replacement is the best known part of the work, but a consultation begins with whether an operation is the right answer at all, and what the alternative would look like.

What an orthopaedic surgeon treats

The joints, bones, ligaments and tendons that carry you — arthritic hips and knees, shoulder problems, sports injuries such as cruciate ligament and meniscal tears, fractures and their complications. Joint replacement is the best-known part of the work, but a large share of it is keyhole surgery, and a larger share still is deciding that surgery is not yet the answer.

When you would be referred

Pain that no longer responds to medication, injections or physiotherapy; pain that wakes you at night; or a joint that has started to limit how far you can walk or what you can do at work. For injuries, a joint that gives way, locks or cannot bear weight needs assessing rather than waiting out.

At the first consultation

Examination of the joint and how you move, a look at your X-rays or MRI, and an honest conversation about where you are on the curve. A good consultation begins with whether an operation is the right answer at all — replacing a joint too early spends an implant that has a finite life, and too late means rehabilitating from a worse starting point.

What to bring, and what to ask

Recent X-rays and any MRI, a note of what treatment you have already tried and for how long, and a clear sense of what you want to be able to do afterwards. Worth asking: what the alternative to surgery looks like, which implant is intended and why, how long the recovery really takes, and what the result depends on most — the answer is usually the physiotherapy.