Sydney AVM provides individual care using advanced modern techniques.
Welcome to Sydney AVM where we are dedicated to addressing your concerns, answering your questions, and providing the most advanced minimally invasive treatments. We care for adults, children, and families seeking advice and treatment for brain aneurysms or vascular diseases of the head, neck, and spine. Using the most up-to-date evidence, after your consultation with Dr Bhatia you will know what risks you face from your condition and what the safest and most effective treatment options are.
Once you become a patient with Sydney AVM, we are dedicated to supporting you and following up with you throughout your journey.
Sydney AVM
- Practice Philosophy
- Consultations
- Practice Staff
- Anaesthetist(s)
- Latest Endovascular Techniques
We are dedicated to ensuring patients and families have their questions answered and their concerns addressed. Aneurysms and vascular diseases of the brain can be confronting, and it is natural to have a lot of questions. When you come to Sydney AVM, you will get the most up-to-date information about your condition, the risks you may face, the treatment options, and our assurance to support you into the future whether you choose to have treatment or watch and wait.
In some cases, treatments can have more risk than watching and waiting, and here at Sydney AVM we hold it as our ethical and moral responsibility to ensure that we do the best by you and your family. At Sydney AVM, you can be sure that we have your best interests in mind.
Initial consultations are 30 minutes long – this allows us to have a detailed assessment and discussion in a relaxed and comfortable setting. Consultations are comprehensive where I will take patients through their MRI or CT scans in detail in real time on the screen and explain clearly what their condition is, the risks they face from their condition, and how I would treat their condition. At the end of the consultation, patients and families will have a clear understanding of their condition and the proposed treatment approach.
We encourage our patients to have their family or close loved ones involved in the consultation process. This helps address all concerns, ensure that all questions are answered, and we can address questions on family screening (e.g. should my siblings or children get MRIs?).
At Sydney AVM we have a strong model of care where we undertake individual risk assessments for patients with aneurysms and AVMs. We compare the risks you face from your disease with the risks associated with different treatment options.
Our practice staff are integral to Sydney AVM and provide a great level of support and information for our patients regarding the administration and financial aspects of patient care.
Our team are trained to answer questions regarding informed financial consent, out of pocket costs and what you are entitled to receive back from your health fund for any given procedure, as well as questions about the hospital stay and admission processes. They liaise closely with all patients to ensure that the process from consultation booking, to hospital admission and follow up is streamlined.
We work closely with Dr Ngaroma Steele, an outstanding and caring anaesthetist who has extensive experience in neuro-anaesthesia and interventional neuroradiology procedures. Dr Steele has a great ability to help patients and families feel comfortable and relaxed about the anaesthesia process and she is a huge asset to our team. Dr Bhatia had the pleasure of first working with Roma as interns at St Vincent’s Hospital many years ago, and this long history allows us to communicate effectively about your care before, during, and after your procedure.
In our practice we use cutting-edge minimally invasive techniques, going through the blood vessels to reach the brain. For our procedures, we make an incision less than half a centimetre across to get access to the vessels of the thigh or wrist. Using these small access points, we use thin flexible plastic tubes (catheters) to reach the brain vessels. Once in position, we can treat the aneurysm or malformation using the latest devices including thin platinum coils, stents, and liquid agents that can occlude malformations in a slow and controlled ‘lava’ technique. We use angiography, where we can see the blood vessels by injecting dye into them whilst we take x-rays, to guide my procedures to ensure we are always in the right place. Dr Bhatia has also trained in the use of robots for endovascular treatments and was involved in the first robot-assisted brain aneurysm treatments in the world during his fellowship in Canada.
We are equally comfortable using the wrist artery and the thigh artery for access, and in 2019 Dr Bhatia designed and completed a world-first randomized controlled trial using the wrist artery for brain angiography. Where it is safe to do so, using the wrist artery allows you a quicker recovery, lower risk of bleeding, and allows you to sit up straight away after your procedure.
Dr Bhatia has extensively studied, published, and taught on the anatomy of the brain, face, and spine (neuroanatomy), including a PhD from the Department of Anatomy at University of Sydney. This advanced knowledge of anatomy allows him to target your treatment down to the finest detail.
Dr Kartik Bhatia
- Training & experience
- Current work
- Sub-specialty interests
-
Why you should choose to see
Dr Bhatia? - Current appointments
After completing medical school at the University of Adelaide in 2006, Dr Bhatia moved to Sydney for internship and resident years at St Vincent’s Hospital. Following this he undertook two years of neurosurgical experience, a Master of Surgery at the University of Sydney, and then completed five years of radiology training at St Vincent’s Hospital (FRANZCR). During his radiology training he also undertook a PhD in advanced neuroimaging and neuroanatomy at the University of Sydney.
Following radiology training Dr Bhatia completed three years of additional fellowship training in interventional radiology (IR), interventional neuroradiology (INR), and paediatric INR. This included two years across Royal Prince Alfred and Royal North Shore Hospitals, following which his training and skills in INR were formally recognized by the Conjoint Committee for recognition of training in Interventional Neuroradiology (CCINR) in 2018.
For your own assurance, you can find Dr Bhatia’s name on the CCINR register: www.ccinr.org.au/register
In 2019, Dr Bhatia undertook an additional capstone fellowship experience at the prestigious Toronto Western Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. In Toronto he was trained by world renowned leaders in the field of INR - Professor Timo Krings and Professor Vitor Mendes Pereira, both trained in Paris by a founding father of INR – Pierre Lasjaunias. During his time in Toronto, Dr Bhatia gained additional skills in the most advanced treatments in the field of INR including embolization of arterio-venous malformations (AVMs), complex dural arterio-venous fistulae (dAVFs), and the most modern techniques for the treatment of brain aneurysms using flow diverters, stent-assisted coiling, and robot-assistance. During this time Dr Bhatia also designed and ran a world first randomized trial using the wrist artery for brain angiography – a technique that is more comfortable for patients and allows them to sit up during recovery.
Whilst in Toronto, Dr Bhatia was also extensively trained in performing INR procedures for children at the world famous Hospital for Sick Children, including embolization of vein of Galen malformations, facial vascular malformations, intra-arterial chemotherapy for retinoblastoma, and treatment for the youngest child to ever undergo stenting for idiopathic intracranial hypertension. He was also involved in the first brain angiograms for children in Canada using the wrist artery.
At the St Vincent’s Health campus in Sydney, Dr Bhatia works across the public and private hospitals, providing diagnostic and interventional neuroradiology services of the highest standard. Through Sydney AVM, he provides the most thorough and modern clinical service for the assessment, family screening, and treatment of brain aneurysms, by using risk assessment scoring systems, modern vessel wall imaging techniques, and the latest in endovascular technology. He provides these same cutting-edge tools for the management of brain AVMs, dural fistulae, and vascular malformations of the head and neck.
Dr Bhatia currently undertakes the highly specialized Vein of Galen Malformation (VoGM) embolization procedures in infants at Children’s Hospital Westmead alongside his colleague Dr David Lord and provides INR services for the treatment of paediatric stroke and complex vascular malformations in children. He has published the most up to date article on outcomes and complications of VoGM embolization (from the Toronto cohort) in the prestigious JAMA Neurology and the largest systematic review of thrombectomy in paediatric stroke in Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.
Dr Bhatia has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, is a reviewer for Clinical Neuroradiology, Interventional Neuroradiology, and European Journal of Radiology, sits on the RANZCR Reference Group for IR/INR, and is a Clinical Senior Lecturer with University of Sydney, UNSW, and Macquarie University.
Complex intracranial aneurysms
Brain arterio-venous malformations (AVMs)
Dural arterio-venous fistulae
Sclerotherapy for complex vascular malformations
Venous stenting for idiopathic intracranial hypertension
Paediatric INR including Vein of Galen Malformation embolization and stroke
When you or your child has a condition affecting the blood vessels of the brain, you want to see someone who has been trained by the best, who uses the latest technology, and who gives you advice in a caring environment where your concerns are addressed. When you see Dr Bhatia, not only will you receive the benefits of 20 years of medical training, you can rest assured that he will manage and follow-up your condition well into the future and provide screening for your family members when it its appropriate.
With a PhD in neuroanatomy, Dr Bhatia has a highly detailed roadmap in his mind of every corner of the brain and its blood vessels – this is knowledge he will use to ensure your treatment is performed with millimetric precision. Dr Bhatia is the only INR practitioner in Australia with a PhD in neuroanatomy – so you know you will benefit from the highest level of knowledge when you come to Sydney Aneurysm.
Dr Bhatia is the only INR practitioner in NSW to have undertaken dedicated paediatric INR training in a world-leading paediatric hospital – the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. When its your child, you want someone who uses the most gentle techniques, understands the differences between child and adult vascular conditions, and knows how to discuss these complex conditions with children and their families. If Dr Bhatia undertakes a procedure for your child at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, you will have the full benefit of the specialized medical, intensive care, nursing, and allied health staff at the largest children’s hospital in NSW. Unlike other INR services that only provide a ‘drop-in’ presence or admit children to adult wards, Dr Bhatia works regular days at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead because he believes that children deserve a doctor who they can rely on and who will address their needs and concerns.
St Vincent’s Private Hospital
St Vincent’s Public Hospital
Children’s Hospital at Westmead
Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick
Macquarie University Hospital
Westmead Private Hospital
Clinical senior lecturer with University of Sydney, UNSW, Macquarie University