ABOUT

After completing his postgraduate training (MS –Master of surgery) in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from Sri Lanka, Vat moved to United Kingdom in 2004 to pursue his advanced training. He continued his training in Yorkshire and London. He completed his Specialty training in London Deanery and awarded Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) in 2011. During the last 3 years of training he underwent advanced skills training in Laparoscopic surgery, emergency gynaecology and early pregnancy at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital, Imperial College Health care, London, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London and Northwick Park Hospital. He continued his advanced training in minimal access surgery and endometriosis as a post CCT fellow at The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and its Endometriosis centre, London. He also completed his advanced training in ultrasound scanning (Gynaecology and Early pregnancy) at Queen Charlotte Hospital, London and King’s College London. During this time, he also completed Post Graduate diploma in Medical Ultrasound (Gynaecology and Early Pregnancy) with Merit from King’s College London. He was appointed as Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Wexham Park and Heatherwood Hospitals (currently
Frimley Health NHS) in 2012 where he is the Lead for Early pregnancy services and lead for Fibroid MDT. He is also the Laparoscopy and Gynaecology simulation training lead for Health Education England, Thames Valley and responsible for gynaecology and laparoscopy simulation training for Oxford deanery post graduate trainees. He is also a honorary clinical tutor at Southampton University Medical School.
He has more than 29 years’ experience as a doctor and more than 23 years of experience as Obstetrician and Gynaecologist. Having undergone advanced training in some of the best centres in the world, Mr Vathanan has earned excellent experience in managing complex cases with minimal intervention and best outcomes. He is known for his minimal access surgical skills as he aims to manage even complex cases via keyhole surgery. He performs major operations such as hysterectomy through 3 small tummy scars (usually 3 X 5mm scars) to provide best cosmetic and surgical outcome for his patients. Most of his hysterectomy patients go home within or just after 24 hours of surgery. This helps with early recovery and early return to work.
His advanced training and experience in ultrasound scanning helps him to run a one stop gynaecology and early pregnancy clinic. He consults, examines, and performs ultrasound scanning at the same visit. This helps to arrive at the diagnosis on the same day and a management plan can be instituted straight away without any further delay for scanning, helping his patients with early diagnosis, and saving their time. He understands the
need to spend enough time with his patients to explain the condition in detail. Therefore, he aims to spend 30 minutes for new appointments including ultrasound scans. He believes in holistic approach in health care with patient involvement and patient choice in management.
He has extensive experience in all benign Gynaecology conditions including menstrual disorders, endometriosis, chronic pelvic pain, fibroid, ovarian cysts, postmenopausal bleeding, menopausal symptoms and utero vaginal prolapse. He chairs the fibroid multidisciplinary team meeting at his NHS hospital and excellent experience in fibroid surgery.
He has particular interest in early pregnancy complications, ectopic pregnancy and recurrent miscarriages. He runs a dedicated recurrent miscarriage clinic at his NHS Trust. He is trained and experienced in reproductive surgery to improve fertility outcome for ladies with conditions affecting miscarriage and fertility that needs surgical intervention. He performs key hole / camera surgery for womb anomalies (uterine septum / polyp/ fibroids), womb line scarring (intrauterine adhesions), fallopian tube and ovarian surgeries including advanced laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis.

Memberships:

1. Fellow of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FRCOG)
2. Diplomate of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (DFSRH)
3. Member of British Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy (BSGE)
4. Member of International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynaecology (ISUOG)
5. Member of Sri Lankan College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (SLCOG)

Research:

Vat firmly believes and practices in evidence based medicine. He has contributed and still actively involves in research. His research interests include early pregnancy, minimal access surgery and ultrasound scanning. He was awarded Post Graduate Diploma in Health Research with Merit from The University of Leeds and contributed research articles in journals and chapter in electronic training modules. He authored 10 research articles in scientific journals, more than 25 national and international presentations, more than 25 abstract publications and 1 chapter in RCOG electronic training module. He also peer reviewed 2 researches and 1 review article. He still actively involves in research and publishes articles in scientific journals.

Research Publications:

1. Updating M6 pregnancy of unknown location risk- prediction model including evaluation of clinical factors. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2024; 63: 408–418). DOI: 10.1002/uog.27515.
2. Evaluating cut-off levels for progesterone, β human chorionic gonadotropin and β human chorionic gonadotropin ratio to exclude pregnancy viability in women with a pregnancy of unknown location: A prospective multicenter cohort study. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2022;101:46–55. doi:10.1111/aogs.14295
3. External validation of models to predict the outcome of pregnancies of unknown location: a multicentre cohort
study. BJOG An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Sep 2020. doi:10.1111/1471‐0528.16497
4. Lower extremity deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism associated with an uterine leiomyoma. Sri Lanka Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 42(1):32 June 2020
5. Triaging women with a pregnancy of unknown location using a two-step triage protocol including the M6 model: a clinical implementation study. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2020; 55: 105– 114. doi: 10.1002/uog.20420.
6. A Comparative Observational Study of the Use of Saline Uterine Hydrosonography for the Diagnosis and Assessment of Uterine Cavity Lesions in Women. J Reprod Med. 2016; 2016:9317194. doi: 10.1155/2016/9317194. Epub 2016 Aug
7. Defining safe criteria to diagnose miscarriage: prospective observational multicentre study. BMJ 2015;351:h4579 doi: 10.1136/bmj.h4579
8. Obstetric anal sphincter injury risk reduction: a retrospective observational analysis. J. Perinat. Med. 2014; aop DOI 10.1515/jpm- 2013-0269.
9. External validation of models and simple scoring systems to predict miscarriage in intrauterine pregnancies of uncertain viability. Hum. Reprod. 2013; 28 (11): 2905-2911.
10. The urine protein heat coagulation test – a useful screening test for proteinuria in pregnancy in developing countries: a method validation study. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 2004; 111( 5),
491.

Teaching:

Vat is passionate about teaching and training. He has dedicated teaching and training roles both locally and regionally. He is the lead for Gynaecology and Laparoscopic simulation training for postgraduate trainees in Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Health Education England,Thames Valley region (former Oxford deanery). He is also an educational and clinical supervisor for specialty trainees of Oxford deanery. He is an accredited training preceptor of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) for advanced training in emergency Gynaecology and early pregnancy. He is a clinical tutor at Southampton University, Medical School and site lead for Southampton University O&G medical students at Wexham Park Hospital.

Personal note:

He is married with 2 children. Along with English he can converse fluently in Tamil and Sinhala. In spite of his busy schedule he finds time to spend with his family and kids, travelling, walking and tennis. He is keen in
charity work and involved in helping orphans affected by the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.