Mr Parag Sayal

Mr Sayal is the clinical lead for spinal surgery at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Mr Sayal's practice encompasses the entire range of simple and complex spinal surgery and also endoscopic skull base surgery including:

• Degenerative spinal conditions (patients with back pain, sciatica/leg pain, neck pain, arm pain, radiculopathy, myelopathy), spinal deformity, spinal instrumentation, or metalwork
• Minimally invasive spinal surgery, including surgery using tubes and endoscopic surgery.
• Surgery for spinal tumours, intra-dural tumours, malignant spinal cord compression (MSCC), spinal blood vessel malformations.
• Surgery for spinal infection, osteoporosis, and spine fractures
• Injections and facet denervation for spinal pain.

He is a specialist for CSF leaks (spinal fluid leaks) and spontaneous intracranial hypotension and works closely with neurologists and neuroradiologists. He has specific expertise in the surgical repair of leaks: ventral leaks, leaks due to meningeal cysts / lumbar punctures, and CSF Venous fistulae.

He is part of the UK working group for CSF leak/SIH guidelines. He also performs endoscopic anterior skull base surgeries for pathologies such as CSF leaks, chordomas, and chondrosarcomas, among others, with the ENT surgeons. He has a specialist interest in cervical deformity correction, metabolic spinal conditions such as MPS & XLH, Tarlov cysts, craniovertebral junction pathology, syringomyelia, superficial siderosis, spinal cord tumours and vascular malformations, and minimally invasive spinal surgery.

Having graduated from medical school with numerous distinctions and medals, Mr Sayal was the first British neurosurgical trainee competitively chosen to pilot the Modernising Medical Careers' neurosurgical curriculum, which he assisted in developing. He obtained his neurosurgical training in the Yorkshire Deanery and was the senior registrar for two years at The Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield. During this time he performed over 1500 neurosurgical procedures, including surgery for brain tumors, brain hemorrhage/aneurysm clippings, complex spinal surgery/instrumentation, and open/endoscopic skull base surgery. Immediately after finishing his registrar training in 2013, he was appointed locum neurosurgical consultant at The Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, and the main remit of the job was complex spinal surgery and skull base surgery.

He then chose to take up the prestigious Sir Victor Horsley Spinal Fellowship at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN) and The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore, with the guidance of Mr Adrian Casey. This was a joint neurosurgery and orthopaedic spinal fellowship, and this places him with the unique advantage of having expertise across the entire spectrum of spinal surgery. He was chosen competitively for the prestigious British Association of Spinal Surgeons' Travelling fellowship and also awarded the Best Presentation prize at the 2015 British Association of Spinal Surgeons' meeting. He followed this up with a further four-month fellowship at Queen Square, performing endoscopic anterior skull base surgeries and complex spinal tumour surgery.

He was appointed consultant neurosurgeon at NHNN in 2016. He has also provided cover for the sabbatical of two senior neurosurgeons (Mr Casey and Mr Allibone) and managed some of the most complex spinal cases during this period. Mr Sayal has presented extensively in national and international neurosurgical meetings and conferences and collaborated on over 75 scientific abstracts.

He has a keen interest in teaching and has trained senior spinal fellows who have gone on to become spinal surgery consultants in other hospitals. He has been invited to deliver neurosurgical lectures to a wide range of specialties, including neurosurgeons, orthopaedic spinal surgeons, musculoskeletal physiotherapists, rheumatologists, emergency medicine, nursing professionals, and UCL medical students.

He is currently the lead for spinal surgery at Queen Square and is the course director and faculty for numerous neurosurgery courses. He has been awarded the "UCLH Excellence in Education“ prize and also the Best Neurosurgery Trainer Award.