Mr Michael Kotrba

My clinical interests include: shoulder arthroscopy, back surgery (spinal surgery), balloon kyphoplasty and rotator cuff repair. I provide treatments including mini spinal fusion, lumbar discectomy, vertebroplasty as well as treatment for sports injuries. I am continuously increasing the number of minimally invasive procedures, using minimal access surgery wherever possible, for example percutaneous / mini-open spinal fusions and stabilisations or percutaneous kyphoplasty procedures for spinal fractures.

Following the completion of my degree in human biology in England, I studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg, also gaining practical experience in London, Montreal and Lausanne. I was then accepted into the German orthopaedic training programme and wanting to gain more international experience, I was accepted as the first German registrar on the advanced orthopaedic training programme in Australia where I spent almost two years. I returned to Germany and finished my orthopaedic training in 1998. In January 1999 I was offered my first consultancy and was also appointed acting director of the department by the end of that year. I then changed to the university teaching hospital in Lubeck, Germany as a consultant in order to help and set up the new department of Trauma, Joint and Spinal Surgery. I also dealt with a lot of sports injuries and arthroscopic procedures, which is my second line of interest. 

As my main interest is in spinal surgery, I did a travelling AO fellowship in 2001 in Newcastle upon Tyne and in Oxford. In August 2004 I was appointed Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the then Mayday University Hospital in Croydon, specialising in spinal procedures, including kyphoplasty and minimally invasive shoulder repairs, which I started in 1996.

I am international faculty for Balloon Kyphoplasty, which I introduced in this area in 2006/2007. My unit and I are now one of the main users of Balloon Kyphoplasty in the UK. I am also chairing international meetings and teaching the procedure at the University of Salzburg in Austria and at the University of Leiden in Holland.