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Dr. Nitin Bhatia, the surgeon who saved Jon Wilhite, a victim of ... his team performed the surgery to keep Wilhite alive. Video by Mark Eades of The Orange County Register. Click to see...

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Nitin N. Bhatia, M.D.
Assocociate Professor of Clinical Orthopedics
Chief, Spine Service
Co-Director, UC Irvine Spine Center
Residency Program Director

Appointments and General Patient Information: (714)456-7012

Click HERE to make an appointment online

Email: bhatian@uci.edu

Dr. Bhatia's CV

Clinical Specialty:
Dr. Bhatia, a Board-Certified and Fellowship-trained spine surgeon, serves as Chief of the Spinal Surgery service and co-Director of the Multidisciplinary Spine Program at UC Irvine.

Clinical Interests:
Dr. Bhatia specializes in the surgical and non-surgical treatment of spinal disorders. He has a special interest in problems affecting the cervical spine as well as spinal trauma. He also has significant experience with the thoracic and lumbar spine and with minimally invasive procedures.

For all of our patients, a multi-disciplinary non-surgical approach is used. This approach allows the majority of our patients to improve without surgical intervention. When surgery is necessary, Dr. Bhatia's extensive training in state of the art techniques including minimally invasive surgery, endoscopic and microscopic discectomy, percutaneous fusions, X-Stop lumbar stenosis treatment, Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP), and kyphoplasty help to cure his patients' problems with minimal recovery time and less discomfort than other methods.

Dr. Bhatia has been featured as a treating surgeon in the television show "Guardian Angels, MD" seen nationwide on The Learning Channel (TLC) as well as programs on PBS. He has expertise in all areas of spinal pathology including spinal stenosis, disc herniations, spine trauma, scoliosis, complex cervical and lumbar reconstruction, and failed back syndrome. Dr. Bhatia has completed multiple spine surgery fellowships and has trained in both orthopaedic and neurosurgical techniques.

The UC Irvine Spine Center provides care for Orange County and the related communities including Irvine, Newport Beach, Corona del Mar, Laguna Nigel, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, Santa Ana, Fullerton, Westminster, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Long Beach, Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Fountain Valley, La Palma, Laguna Woods, Laguna Hills, Tustin, San Clemente, and Mission Viejo. Our offices are conveniently located near the 22, 5, and 55 freeways for easy access for our patients from further communities such as Temecula, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Covina, Downey, Long Beach, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Apple Valley, Visalia, Palm Springs, Fresno, Fallbrook, Hemet, Los Angeles, and Riverside. Patients from outside these communities are welcome at the UCI Spine Center as well. International patients are encouraged to contact us for assistance and coordination of medical care.

Research Interests:
Dr. Bhatia has significant research experience and continues to perform both clinical and basic science studies. He is currently evaluating new techniques for the treatment of cervical spinal stenosis and new minimally invasive surgical techniques.

Dr. Bhatia is also studying the efficacy of surgical and non-surgical treatments for patients with spinal trauma and spinal cord injury. His current biomechanical projects include the improvement of cervical spine stabilization techniques and an evaluation of different types of spinal fixation.

Dr. Bhatia has previously published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Additionally, he has presented his research to national and international audiences and won multiple research awards.

Background:
Dr. Bhatia graduated with honors from Stanford University, after which he attended Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. During medical school, Dr. Bhatia won numerous research and academic awards and was the valedictorian of his graduating class.

Following his general surgical internship and orthopaedic surgery residency at the University of California, Los Angeles, Dr. Bhatia completed a spinal surgery fellowship at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, after which he completed a second spinal surgery fellowship at Miami Children’s Hospital.

He currently serves as Chief of the Spinal Surgery Service in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of California, Irvine. In 2004, Dr. Bhatia co-founded the UC Irvine Multidisciplinary Spine Program which combines experts in multiple medical and surgical fields to provide unparalleled care for our patients.

Medical Degree:
Baylor College of Medicine

Residency:
University of California, Los Angeles

Fellowship:
Spinal Surgery, University of Miami
Spinal Scoliosis and Deformity Surgery, Miami Children’s Hospital

Awards:
Scoliosis Research Society - Edgar Dawson Traveling Fellowship, 2005

AOA-JOA Traveling Fellowship - Alternate, 2005

American Orthopaedic Association Emerging Leaders Program, 2005-2006

University of California, Irvine - Faculty Teaching Award, Orthopaedic Surgery, 2005

Outstanding Paper Nominee, Cervical Spine Research Society, 2005

Hibbs Award Nominee, Basic Science, Scoliosis Research Society, 2005

Board Certifications:
American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery

Educational Videos:

Cervical Stenosis and Myelopathy
Cervicogenic Headaches
Lumbar Spondyolysis (Pars Defect, Pars Fracture)
Cervical Total Disc Arthroplasty
Low Back Pain
Cervical Disc Herniation (Herniated disc in the neck)
Lumbar Disc Herniation (Herniated disc in the low back)