Mr Senthil Kumar Velayudham

MBBS, MS, FRCS (Tr & Orth)

Mr Velayudham was appointed as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon to Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in 2006. He practices exclusively in hip surgery specialising in treating hip arthritis, young adult hip problems, and failed hip replacement. He also specialises in sports hip injury, chronic tendon injury and avascular necrosis of the hip.

The National Joint Registry (NJR) collects information on hip replacement surgery and monitors the performance of joint replacement implants, hospitals, and surgeons.  The NJR report shows Mr Velayudham performs over 500 minimally invasive hip replacements annually. His patients’ overall satisfaction score (Patient Reported Outcome and Oxford hip scores) is very high with a very low revision rate compared to the national average.

Mr Velayudham believes every patient is unique with their hip problems and treatment should be tailored to their individual needs. He strives to provide the best possible patient-centric care by involving patients in decision making, tailoring treatment to needs, prioritising safety and continuing to perfect his knowledge and skills.  He is supported by multi-disciplinary teams who share the same values and who are committed to clinical excellence.

He practices evidence-based medicine and uses safe and highly successful latest techniques in minimally invasive hip replacement (his default technique), complex hip replacement and revision hip replacement. He attracts regional referrals for resurfacing hip replacement and hip arthroscopy for management of hip impingement. He believes resurfacing hip replacement is successful in a selected group of patients and continues to offer the service in the region. He also performs robotic or computer-assisted hip replacement surgery.

Having qualified in 1990 from the University of Chennai and completed a post graduate degree course in Trauma and Orthopaedics from the University of Pune in India, Mr Velayudham pursued further specialist surgical training in trauma and orthopaedics on the Southeast Thames training programme in the UK.  He completed his fellowship in pelvic and acetabular reconstructive surgery at St George’s Hospital, London and hip reconstructive surgery at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Middlesex.

Having published and presented scientific studies and won regional awards, he is actively involved in teaching and research projects including audits. His research interests include proximal femur bone remodelling around hip prostheses, optimal prostheses alignment in hip replacement, computer-assisted hip replacement and reconstruction for acetabular defects. He is committed to training the younger generation of doctors.

He was the chair of Clinical Governance in his trust for 10 years, and remains committed to patient safety, infection control and excellence in clinical governance matters. He currently chairs the Complex Hip and Knee meeting in his NHS trust.