Navigating the medical system can feel overwhelming, particularly when you are dealing with pain or uncertainty about your diagnosis. Understanding who you are seeing, what their qualifications mean and what to expect from a specialist consultation is a reasonable place to start.
An orthopaedic surgeon is a medical doctor who has completed years of additional surgical training beyond their medical degree, with expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of conditions affecting the bones, joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments. They treat everything from sports injuries and paediatric hip conditions through to complex joint reconstruction and total joint replacement in older adults.
information on this page is designed to help you understand what orthopaedic surgeons do, how they are trained, and what you can expect when you see one for the first time.
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Orthopaedic surgeons are sometimes confused with chiropractors, osteopaths, physiotherapists and podiatrists. These practitioners provide valuable care for musculoskeletal conditions but are not medical doctors and do not perform surgery. Rheumatologists are specialist physicians who manage inflammatory and autoimmune joint conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, but do not perform surgery.
Referral to an orthopaedic surgeon is appropriate when conservative management has not adequately addressed a condition, when the diagnosis is uncertain, or when surgical treatment may be required.
As part of the examination you will be required to undress to expose your hips, knees and ankles. Shorts or tights can be helpful, when evaluating the hip. Mr Balakumar is very experienced in examining infants through to adults. He will adjust his examination accordingly to make sure that the patient, whether a baby or a fully grown adult, is comfortable when being examined.
In Australia, all doctors are awarded an MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) by a university. Qualified surgeons are then awarded a FRACS (Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons). In orthopaedics this is further denoted by FRACS (Orth). In Victoria, surgeons are addressed as Mr rather than Dr, reflecting the traditional surgical convention.
On average, an orthopaedic surgeon in Australia undergoes 16 to 18 years of training after school before receiving their full qualification. This includes university, internship, residency and the highly competitive orthopaedic training programme run by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
Many surgeons undertake additional fellowship training after receiving their FRACS, to develop expertise in a subspecialty area. Fellowship training varies considerably in quality and intensity, from observerships through to high-volume, hands-on programmes at leading international centres.
Access to the most prestigious fellowships, particularly in the United States, requires passing the American medical examinations, making them highly competitive for foreign-trained surgeons. The quality of the fellowship matters as much as its existence.
Mr Balakumar completed a trauma fellowship at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, a hip and knee surgery fellowship at Paris V University in France, and a full-year paediatric and hip preservation fellowship at Harvard’s Children’s Hospital in Boston. His mentors include Mr Ian Torode, Dr John Emans, Dr Mike Millis, Dr Young Jo Kim and Dr Michel Bercovy, internationally recognised leaders in orthopaedics and hip preservation surgery.
A GP referral is the usual pathway. Your GP will refer you when specialist assessment or surgical opinion is appropriate. It is helpful to bring any existing imaging to your appointment. At the first consultation, Mr Balakumar takes a thorough history, examines the relevant area and reviews your imaging before discussing the diagnosis and options, including both surgical and non-surgical approaches.
Mr Balakumar is one of a small number of surgeons in Australia with formal training in both paediatric and adult hip surgery. His fellowship at Harvard’s Children’s Hospital in Boston, under some of the world’s leading specialists in hip preservation, gives him a depth of expertise that is difficult to find in a single practice.
His approach is the same whether the patient is 6 months or 65 years old – thorough assessment, honest options, and no pressure toward surgery until the clinical picture clearly supports it.
(03) 9573 9659
