Dr. Karunakaran. S is a Consultant Spine Orthopedic Surgeon with 22 years of extensive experience. He practices at the Precision Spine Center located in Anna Nagar East and at Gleneagles Global Hospital in Chennai. Currently, he serves as the Director of the Institute of Advanced Spine Services at Gleneagles Global Hospital. Previously, he led the spine unit at Madras Medical College and the Government General Hospital in Chennai.
Additionally, Dr. Karunakaran. S was a Consultant at Meenakshi Medical Mission Hospital in Madurai, where he established the Department of Spine Surgery. Dr. Karunakaran. S specializes in treating spinal disorders affecting the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar regions. He has a particular focus on the effective application of minimally invasive and motion-sparing techniques. He is recognized as a pioneer in performing percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy under local anesthesia for disc prolapse in this region, utilizing both transforaminal and interlaminar approaches without stitches. Dr. Karunakaran. S was the first in South India to employ the INSPACE interspinous implant for lumbar canal stenosis through keyhole spine surgery under local anesthesia.
Furthermore, he has been at the forefront of 3D printing in spine surgery and has successfully conducted over a thousand procedures, including surgeries for scoliosis, cervical spine pathologies, thoracotomies, laparotomies, and disc replacements. His training includes interlaminar percutaneous endoscopic cervical and lumbar spine surgery with Dr. Sebastian Ruetten at St. Anna Hospital in Herne, Germany, in 2013, as well as observerships with Dr. Randal Betz at Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, USA, in 2003, and at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, USA, in the same year. He also completed an observership at AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) in New Delhi under Dr. Aravind Jayaswal in 2004. In 2013, he underwent advanced training in endoscopic spine surgery with Dr. Antony Yeung in Phoenix, USA, focusing on transforaminal endoscopic lumbar disc surgery, dorsal endoscopic rhizotomy for chronic back pain, and the latest percutaneous fusion techniques under local anesthesia.
