Ask enough orthopaedic and spine surgeons why they chose this particular field, and you’ll notice the answers start to sound remarkably alike. Patients who couldn’t walk, walking again. Recoveries measured in weeks rather than years. A kind of medicine where the results are visible, immediate, undeniable.
Dr. Y. Raj Shekhar Krishna’s answer follows the same thread, but it comes from somewhere personal. Back in medical school, he found himself drawn to orthopaedics for a simple reason: it offered proof.
“You could actually see the difference your work made,” he recalls. “A patient who arrived unable to walk could return a few weeks later with confidence in every step. That transformation fascinated me. It still does.”
That fascination has carried him through more than two decade of practice, several countries, and a growing list of advanced techniques, and today finds him serving as Consultant Orthopaedic, Spine and Joint Replacement Surgeon at SHALBY Hospital, Ahmedabad and at KIMS Super Speciality Hospital, Bilaspur. His inclusion among the country’s notable orthopaedic surgeons feels less like recognition arriving out of nowhere and more like a natural checkpoint, indeed a reflection of the effort behind the work. And yet, ask him what experience has taught him, and the answer isn’t about mastery. It’s about humility – no matter how experienced you become, there’s always something new to learn.
A Global Education
Dr. Y. Raj Shekhar Krishn’s academic path began with an MBBS from Mumbai, followed later by an MS in Orthopaedics from Bangalore, the gap between the two spent, as he’d later describe it, absorbing the practical texture of the field before formalising it on paper under the guidance of his father Late. Dr. Y.Radhakrishna, who is still a pioneer in laparoscopic surgery.
What followed wasn’t just a list of fellowships , it was a path that took him wherever the field’s best minds happened to be. In Switzerland, Dr. Krishna trained under Dr. Friedrich Magerl and Dr. Thomas Forster at the University of Bern, sharpening his command over spine surgery under the guidance of the same surgeons who introduced and defined spine surgery around the world. In Rome, it was Dr. Giovanni Di Giacomo a world renowned shoulder replacement surgeon ,who introduced him to contemporary shoulder techniques and the emerging science of stem cell application. South Korea brought him under the mentorship of Dr. Gun Choi, the pioneer in day care spine surgery, refining his grasp of advanced spinal procedures and percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy. Florida added another layer to his stem cell expertise, while Guangzhou and Montreal rounded out his reconstructive expertise. Closer to home, he studied arthroscopy and sports medicine at Hyderabad, and completed further groundwork in joint replacement at Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore, alongside the AO courses.
This constant movement between mentors and institutions set the tone for the career that followed. Having begun his career at Mallya Hospital in Bangalore, Dr. Krishna’s trajectory spanning continents, institutions, and disciplines, now finds its home at KIMS Super Speciality Hospital, Bilaspur and at SHALBY hospital, Ahmedabad, where he currently practices.
Expertise Across the Spectrum
Those years of fellowships, hands-on training, and partnerships with some of the field’s most respected names have left Dr. Krishna with a range that only few surgeons can claim. His expertise spans a vast spectrum, from spine surgery, shoulder joint replacement, and arthroscopy, to even OATS (the osteochondral autograft transfer system), and managing everything he considers himself fortunate to work across such breadth of cases, a privilege, in his words, rather than a burden.
Throughout his career, he has listened to patients’ needs before anything else, planning and making the right decision accordingly, and more often than not, surgery isn’t quite the solution. As he puts it, “A successful operation begins long before the first incision.”
It’s a philosophy that shows up in his consultations too. “Patients are occasionally surprised when I tell them that my happiest consultations are the ones where surgery isn’t required,” Dr. Krishn shares. There’s a common perception, he explains, that surgeons are eager to operate, but the reality is exactly the opposite. If someone can recover through rehabilitation, lifestyle modification or medication, that’s always worth exploring first. When surgery becomes necessary, it should be because it offers the patient the best long-term outcome, not simply because it’s technically possible.
Timing, Information, and Trust
Asked about the challenges he currently observes in Indian healthcare, and how he navigates them in his own practice, Dr. Raj Krishna points first to something deceptively simple – timing.
“One of the biggest challenges is timing,” he explains. “Many patients wait until the pain begins to interfere with every aspect of their lives before seeking specialist care. By then, conditions that could have been managed conservatively often become much more complicated.”
The second challenge, he notes, isn’t a shortage of information but an overwhelming excess of it. “Patients arrive having read articles, watched videos and spoken to friends, neighbours and relatives, each offering a different opinion. While it’s encouraging that people want to understand their condition, not all information is reliable.”
For Dr. Krishna, addressing both challenges, comes down to redefining what his role actually involves. “It involves educating patients, answering their questions honestly and helping them understand why a particular treatment is being recommended.
Life Beyond the Operating Theatre
Away from the operating theatre, Dr. Krishna is quick to admit that medicine demands its own kind of balance. For him, that release has long taken the shape of a tennis racket. “Tennis has always been close to my heart, and representing India through the International Tennis Federation remains one of my proudest personal experiences,” he shares a chapter of his life marked by an ITF Masters Tour ranking of 1381 in singles and 637 in doubles. Swimming, camping, and the occasional long drive round out the rest, whenever his schedule allows.
There’s a quiet irony he’s happy to acknowledge. “Looking back, it’s rather fitting. I spend my professional life encouraging people to stay active, so I try to practice what I preach.” As he sees it, each pursuit has left its mark on the surgeon he’s become – “The operating theatre teaches precision. Sport teaches discipline. Nature teaches perspective. I think all three have made me a better surgeon.”
