Introducing Dr Rajinikanth Janakiraman MBBS, MS, DNB, MRCS, FRACS

Dr. Rajinikanth Janakiraman completed his MBBS from Madurai Medical College, one of the premier institutes in South India. After graduation, he did his post graduate specialty training in general surgery from the same institute and further obtained Diplomate in National Board (General Surgery) and MRCS (Edin) in 2005. Later, Dr. Janakiraman joined as a permanent faculty at Christian Medical College, Vellore, South India, a 2500 bedded tertiary care centre where he developed an interest towards head and neck pathologies.

In 2008, Dr. Janakiraman took sabbatical leave to join Royal Darwin Hospital, Darwin, NT as a head and neck trauma fellow where he spent two years and another year at St. George’s Hospital, London, UK doing advanced fellowship in oral cancers with advanced microvascular reconstruction. After completing fellowship training in Head and Neck Surgery, in 2012, Dr. Janakiraman commenced as a senior specialist surgeon at Christian Medical College, where he held the clinical lead for Head and Neck Surgery, while managing the full spectrum of general surgery including emergency trauma surgery. He went on to establish a new division of Head and Neck Surgery at his institute and was appointed as the co-director in 2016. During this tenure, he also served as the director of Fellowship in Head and Neck surgery and have trained more than 15 fellows during his period. He established the Ethicon Microvascular course for trainees along with Ethicon Institute and has conducted several CME educational programs during his tenure at CMC, Vellore. He enjoys teaching basic surgical skills at all levels from Medical Students to advanced trainees and has taken part as a faculty member in several postgraduate teaching courses. Dr. Janakiraman has won several travel grants and has spent time at MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston, Texas, Memorial Sloan kettering Cancer Centre, Newyork, USA and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia. He has published articles in leading indexed journals and his research interests include advanced reconstruction of head and neck malignancies involving CAD-CAM technology to design custom made patient specific titanium plates.

In 2019, Dr. Janakiraman returned to Darwin to join as a consultant at the Department of Maxillofacial /Head and Neck Surgery, Royal Darwin Hospital. He aims to provide a multidisciplinary approach in the management of head and neck pathologies including thyroid and parathyroid diseases. Dr Janakiraman will continue his role at Royal Darwin Hospital as a senior specialist surgeon in the Department of Maxillofacial /Head and Neck Surgery. He is also an adjunct academic lecturer in the college of Medicine & Public Health for Flinders University Darwin. His knowledge and specialty will be greatly appreciated and beneficial in his new role in the private sector.

Dr Janakiraman's areas of interest include:

• Facial Trauma
• Fractures of the facial skeleton
• Oral pathologies
• Benign conditions and premalignant conditions
• Mouth cancers
• Skin cancers including local flaps
• Thyroid and parathyroid surgeries, including Toxic goitres and cancers
• Salivary gland pathologies
• Submandibular gland and parotid gland, including stone disease, benign and malignant tumours
• All neck lumps
• Congenital lumps and malignant lymph nodes, schwannoma etc.
• Reconstruction, Including local flaps, regional flaps, and advanced microvascular reconstruction