Mr Raj Bhalla
BSc(Hons) MD FRCS(ORL-HNS) PGCertMedEd
Raj is a Consultant Rhinologist and Skull Base Surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary and Salford Royal Hospital. His private practices are at the Alexandra Hospital in Cheadle, at 52 Alderley Road, The Wilmslow Hospital and at Spire Manchester in Didsbury.
Raj trained in the North West and, prior to his appointment as a Consultant in 2007, spent 12 months at the Alberta Sinus Centre, University of Alberta Hospital, Canada training in advanced endoscopic and minimally-invasive approaches to the sinuses and anterior skull base.
Since commencing his post, Raj has established a comprehensive sinus and rhinoplasty service at both NHS hospitals and in his private practice, utilising the most current instruments, technology and surgical techniques.
At Manchester Royal Infirmary and Salford Royal Hospital, Mr Bhalla treats complex sinus and nasal disease and, abnormalities of the anterior skull base, such as CSF leak and skull base tumours. He also performs a large amount of nasal surgery to correct breathing difficulties and deformities (rhinoplasty over 100 cases per year NHS and private). He also provides specialist surgery at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital (RMCH) and Manchester Royal Eye Hospital (MREH). The large part of Raj's surgery is performed as a day-case. Almost exclusively now across the hospitals at which he works (2 NHS and 3 private), the 3 elements of Mr Bhalla's practice are sinus surgery (30% of his time), rhinoplasty (45% of his time) and skull base surgery (25% of his time). He is, therefore, a Specialist Rhinologist (an ENT surgeon that specialises in problems related to the nose and sinuses).
Raj also provides a very specialist regional service with his paediatric neurosurgical colleagues to treat complex nasal, sinus and skull base problems in children. He organises and chairs a regional Rhinology multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meeting at Manchester Royal Infirmary, and is involved in a Skull Base MDT at Salford Royal Hospital and an Orbital MDT at MREH. These meetings are designed to collaborate to improve decision making and ultimately, to raise the bar in terms of patient care.
At Salford Royal Hospital, Raj is a core member of the Manchester Skull Base Unit. Here, he performs complex skull base surgery with his neurosurgical partner. He also holds an Honorary Senior Lecturer's position with the University of Manchester.
Mr Bhalla has research interests in the association between sinus disease and asthma, tumours of the sinuses, and new technologies and their application in sinus surgery. He hosts his own cadaveric sinus dissection courses (www.nose-manchester.co.uk and www.sinus.uk.com) at the University of Manchester and is invited expert faculty at both national and international sinus, advanced sinus and ENT expert courses (Dundee, Winchester, Copenhagen, Trier, Cambridge, Newcastle, Berlin, Wrightington, London, Maribor, Southampton, Liverpool, Nottingham, Cairo) and meetings. He was Clinical Director of the Manchester Surgical Skills and Simulation Centre and is on the Councils of the British Society of Facial Plastic Surgery, British Skull Base Society and Royal Society of Medicine (section of laryngology and rhinology). He is the Immediate Past-President of the British Rhinological Society. He has been Chair for Courses and Simulation with ENT UK. He is a full member of the European Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery who have recognised both his commitment to and volume of rhinoplasty surgery. He is certified to perform cosmetic surgery by the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He co-organised BACO 2018 in Manchester and was responsible for the cadaveric dissection programme for ENT UK at this international meeting.
Raj was invited to Copenhagen, Denmark where he performed two skull base surgical procedures. One of these was a historic event in Denmark - the first trans-nasal endoscopic skull base resection performed in Denmark. This was a very proud day in his career. He recently in 2023 mentored another ENT surgeon from Denmark and an ENT surgeon from Kenya. He is section editor for the 9th edition of Scott-Brown, a prestigious international ENT textbook. He will be authoring rhinoplasty, sinus and skull base chapters in this textbook as well as editing the entire section of work forwarded by international experts in this field. The Oxford Testbook in Otolaryngology is currently in press, in which he was the rhinology section editor. He has organised the 11th Experts in Otolaryngology Conference to be held in London in March 2024. He is looking forward to giving 3 keynote lectures at the Confederation of Otolaryngology societies Conference to be held in Dublin in 2024.
Keynote Lectures:
Swedish Rhinologic Society
2nd June 2016
Umea, Sweden
"What's new in sinus and skull base surgery?"
Danish Rhinologic Society
23rd March 2017
Nyborg, Denmark
"Trans-nasal resection of skull base malignancies: principles and evidence"
and
"Reconstruction of skull base defects following extended tumour resection"
Nordic ENT Association
1st June 2017
Gothenburg, Sweden
"Frontal sinus approaches and technological advances"
Israeli Society of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
9th March 2022
Eilat, Israel
"Surgical approaches to the frontal sinus"
Israel Society of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
10th March 2022
Eilat, Israel
"From sinus to skull base - Current position and training the next generation"
Egyptian Head & Neck Society
9th March 2023
Cairo, Egypt
"Current positions in sinus and endoscopic skull base surgery"