Dr Raj studied medicine at University of Malaya, accumulating four distinctions. He then specialized in orthopaedic surgery, finishing his residency and postgraduate degree in 1982 .He completed his residency at the world renowned Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry, England. After working in England, Wales and Ireland, he returned to work in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. In 1987, he started private practice in Johor Bahru.
Dr Raj practices general orthopaedic and trauma work, with special interest in hip and knee replacement and paediatric orthopaedics. For chronic pain syndromes, Dr Raj uses trigger point therapy, including injections to joints. This has helped many patients who seek non-operative treatment of back pain and joint problems. Local steroid or synthetic synovial fluid injections are often used.
The bulk of Dr Raj's work now consists of joint replacement, probably because the present baby boomers have reached the age when arthritis afflicts them.
Charity Work
Since 2002, Dr. Raj has been doing charity and relief work in India, Gabon and Angola. Much of the work in these countries is to correct the deformities in children, especially clubfeet, dislocated hips and deformity caused by inadequate treatment of fractures and injuries. By going regularly to these hospitals, Dr Raj is getting more patients each year. In Guyana (South America) and Gabon (Africa), he helped to train local doctors to do simple orthopaedic operations.
Orthopaedics
The Greek roots of orthopaedics are "ortho" (straight) and "pais" (child). Over the years, orthopaedics has expanded to include all bone and joint diseases, as well as muscle, tendons and nerves. During his career, Dr Raj has literally operated from head to toe! He has performed skull surgeries for accident victims, chest surgery for infections of the spine, abdominal approaches to correct spinal deformities etc. Truly the practice of orthopaedic surgery has been unique in that in the last twenty years, joint replacement has brought great relief to sufferers of joint arthritis.
Available at Malaysian and Singapore Bookstores and from amazon.com
A book written to help patients understand back pain and Dr Raj's methods of treatment based on evidence based medicine and personal experience.
