Expert Witness – Mr Pratipal Kalsi
Consultant Spinal Neurosurgeon

Mr Kalsi is a consultant spinal neurosurgeon who specialises in the management of complex adult spinal pathology, including trauma, tumours and degenerative disease. At Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust–one of London’s largest tertiary referral centres for spine surgery–he performs more than 200 spinal operations each year and serves as the clinical‑governance lead for the department. His operative repertoire spans open, minimally invasive and endoscopic techniques, with particular expertise in cervical and lumbar spine procedures. Mr Kalsi’s practice is underpinned by a rigorous commitment to patient safety and outcome measurement, reflecting his role in shaping the Trust’s spine‑service standards.

Mr Kalsi’s clinical interests are broad yet focused, encompassing five core domains. In the cervical spine, he routinely undertakes anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, cervical disc replacement, posterior foraminotomy, laminectomy and complex C1‑2 fusion constructs. His lumbar work includes microdiscectomy, decompressive laminectomy and a range of fusion strategies such as TLIF, XLIF and ALIF. He is an early adopter of advanced technologies, performing endoscopic and robotic‑assisted spine surgery and championing minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS) across the spine. Complex cases form a substantial part of his practice: he manages metastatic spinal disease, intradural tumours and cerebrospinal‑fluid disorders, adMresses acute spinal trauma and spinal cord injury, and treats spinal infections and thoracic disc pathology. Complementary to his operative work, Mr. Kalsi performs image‑guided spinal injections, vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty, providing a comprehensive interventional spine service.

In his capacity as Spine Governance Lead at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Mr Kalsi directs initiatives aimed at enhancing patient safety, clinical quality and surgical outcomes for all spine related interventions. He has also held several senior roles within the British Neurosurgical Trainees’ Association (BNTA), where he contributed to the development of national education programmes, training standards and service delivery frameworks for neurosurgical trainees throughout the United Kingdom.

Mr Kalsi’s research programme centres on spinal cord injury and a spectrum of spinal disorders. His postgraduate work explored neural regeneration after brachial plexus root avulsion using olfactory ensheathing cells, establishing a foundation for translational studies in spinal repair. Since then, he has contributed to numerous peer reviewed articles covering cervical myelopathy, spinal tumours, arachnoid cysts and long term outcomes after spinal surgery. This robust publication record underpins his evidence based clinical practice and informs his contributions to medico-legal consultations.

Mr Kalsi has authored and contributed to a range of peer‑reviewed articles that address both the clinical management and basic science of spinal and neurovascular disease. His recent publications include a case series and systematic review of spinal arachnoid cysts, outcome analyses of multilevel anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, and a multinational cohort study on neck pain in degenerative cervical myelopathy. He has also reported on the surgical treatment of giant thoracic schwannomas, the safety of fibrin‑glue adhesives in spinal surgery, and novel approaches to carotid cavernous fistulas and malignant glioma care. A comprehensive list of his publications is available on request.

As a senior consultant in a major UK teaching hospital, Mr Kalsi is deeply involved in undergraduate and postgraduate education. He supervises neurosurgical trainees as a Clinical and Educational Supervisor, delivers bedside teaching, seminars and formal lectures to medical students, junior doctors and specialist registrars, and serves on the faculty of the Imperial College FRCS Neurosurgery Course. His responsibilities also include postgraduate examination preparation, curriculum development and mentorship of early career surgeons, reflecting his commitment to nurturing the next generation of spinal neurosurgeons.

Mr Kalsi is frequently called upon to provide independent medico‑legal opinions on a wide spectrum of spinal‑care issues. His expertise encompasses the interpretation of diagnostic imaging, the appraisal of clinical decision‑making and the evaluation of both operative and non‑operative management strategies. He also advises on matters of informed consent, causation, breach of duty and prognosis, offering detailed assessments of long‑term functional outcome. In addition, Mr Kalsi’s experience extends to cases involving criminal negligence and personal injury, where his authoritative analysis of spinal pathology and treatment standards informs litigation, insurance and regulatory decisions.