Dr Omar Sabri

Dr Omar Sabri is a British consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon in Dubai, with more than 20 years of experience across the National Health Service and the private sector.

His practice covers two areas that rarely sit together. The first is complex trauma, particularly reconstruction of the pelvis and hip socket after fracture, a subspecialty within orthopaedics that relatively few surgeons practise.

The second is planned hip and knee surgery, including ROBOTIC-ARM-ASSISTED JOINT REPLACEMENT and revision of previous replacements.

He has performed approximately 5,000 surgeries and plans each procedure in three dimensions using the patient’s own imaging before entering the theatre.

Training and Career

• Dr Omar Sabri completed his school education in Egypt before undertaking his surgical training in trauma and orthopaedics in England from 2001 to 2008.
• In 2008, he travelled to New York City for a mini-fellowship, where he worked alongside Dr David Helfet, an internationally recognised figure in trauma and pelvic surgery.
• He also worked as an acting consultant at the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre, where he ran hip and knee arthroplasty lists.
• He completed his higher surgical training in trauma and orthopaedics on the Bristol rotation in 2010, followed by a trauma fellowship in Nottingham in 2011.
• In April 2012, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon in trauma and orthopaedics at Newcastle University Hospitals.
• He then moved to St George’s Hospital in London as a consultant surgeon, with a practice built around complex trauma, including pelvic and acetabular reconstruction, alongside hip and knee replacement surgery.
• He now practises in Dubai, where he continues to treat both acute trauma and planned joint surgery.

Areas of Specialist Practice

• Complex pelvic, acetabular and lower limb trauma reconstruction
• Minimally invasive pelvic and acetabular surgery
• Robotic-Arm-Assisted hip and knee replacement
• Revision of previous hip and knee replacements
• Fragility fractures of the pelvis, hip and lower limb
• Major trauma and patients with multiple injuries
• Bone and joint infection in lower limb reconstruction
• Arthroscopic knee surgery
• Virtual reality surgical simulation for training

Robotic and 3D-Planned Surgery

Dr Omar Sabri is certified to perform ROBOTIC-ASSISTED HIP AND KNEE REPLACEMENT using three robotic systems: MAKO, CUVIS and CORI. He has experience using these systems for planned joint replacement surgery.

The value of these systems is planning. A three-dimensional model of the joint is built from the patient’s own CT scan, and implant size, position and limb alignment are established before the operation rather than judged during it.

The surgeon performs the procedure throughout, with the robotic arm assisting in preparing the bone according to the established surgical plan.

The same principle applies to his trauma work. In pelvic and acetabular fractures, the reduction sequence and the placement of each plate and screw are planned on a three-dimensional reconstruction beforehand. This is particularly important in regions where the safe corridors for fixation are narrow and vary from patient to patient.

Academic and Teaching Work

Dr Omar Sabri was first appointed as an associate lecturer and examiner at Newcastle University and has continued to teach throughout his career.

• He is an Associate Lecturer at Sharjah University and Tasneem University.
• He runs a pelvic and acetabular reconstruction fellowship, taking national and international fellows.
• He is an undergraduate teacher at St George’s Medical School and an honorary lecturer at the University of London.
• He is a clinical supervisor for orthopaedic registrars on the South West London rotation.
• He delivers an annual cadaveric session on surgical approaches to the hip and pelvis.
• He wrote the chapter on the management of pelvic and limb trauma in the latest edition of the Oxford Textbook of Critical Care.
• He is a reviewer for the Bone and Joint Journal and has published in peer-reviewed journals in his specialist areas.
• He is a national and international faculty member for the AO Foundation.
• He is principal investigator on several NIHR trials relating to the hip and pelvis.

He was nominated for the Royal College of Surgeons Award for Innovation in Surgical Education for introducing virtual reality training into orthopaedic training in South West London.

Virtual Reality and Surgical Innovation

Dr Omar Sabri is a key opinion leader and global medical panel member for FundamentalVR, a medical virtual reality company whose platform combines virtual reality with haptic feedback to train surgeons.

In that role, he helps build the simulations used to teach surgical technique.

His interest in simulation comes from the same place as his interest in three-dimensional planning: rehearsing a procedure before performing it, whether that rehearsal is for a trainee or for a specific patient’s anatomy.