Top UK surgeons for spinal operations

Two top consultant surgeons in spinal deformity will be coming to Malta today to carry out up to 20 complicated spinal operations at St Luke's Hospital, medical sources said.

Tim Morely, a spinal deformity and scoliosis specialist, and Jan Lehovsky, who specialises in spinal deformity, spinal injury and spinal tumour, will start performing operations on Maltese patients as from tomorrow.

The two specialists, described by the medical sources as highly respected throughout Europe, work at the Spinal Deformity Unit at the Royal National Orthopedic Hospital, in Stanmore.

This unit is the one of the largest in Europe. Referrals to this service come from throughout the UK and internationally and the unit is renowned for its pioneering work. Specialist spinal surgeons treat a wide variety of patients with simple to very complex problems.

The sources said the operations dealing with scoliosis will be the ones that could not be controlled by conservative medicine.

Described as "big guns" in their field, the two surgeons are also expected to carry out other complicated spinal related operations. The two consultant surgeons will be assisted by three high dependency nurses from the same North London hospital.

Those who have never donated blood should be encouraged by this event and donate blood over the coming days, the medical sources said.

"These operations, and we are talking of about 20 operations over a week, will obviously be a drain on the blood bank as we would need a certain amount of reserve. So people should be generous and donate blood this week," the sources said.