Why Mira Road, Bhayandar, Vasai and Virar residents are finding their most trusted spine doctors closer than they expected.
Mira Road Has Always Had to Figure Things Out for Itself
If you’ve lived in Mira Road, Bhayandar, Vasai, or Virar for any stretch of time, you know the particular challenge of finding a reliable specialist.
The infrastructure has grown dramatically — new towers, new malls, a Metro line taking shape, a population that rivals mid-sized cities. But healthcare quality hasn’t always kept pace with the construction cranes. This stretch from Dahisar to Virar has no shortage of clinics and nursing homes. The harder question has always been: which ones do you actually trust with something serious?
For most people here, the default answer has been to travel. A spine problem? Take the fast train to Bandra. A surgical opinion? Head to Andheri or Lower Parel. The assumption — understandable, and not entirely wrong — has been that the best doctors are always somewhere further south.
That assumption is now outdated.
Two Doctors Who Could Have Gone Anywhere — And Chose This
There is a particular kind of doctor who grew up watching medicine from the inside. Who understood, before most people their age understood anything, what it actually means to hold someone’s health in your hands.
Dr. Nandan Marathe and Dr. Abhishek Kulkarni both come from medical families. They grew up with the weight of that legacy — and both pursued their training with the seriousness that kind of upbringing demands. Both earned credentials that open doors anywhere: a gold medal from KEM, a fellowship in Toronto, an international stint in Texas, a presentation in Melbourne.
Meet the Doctors
Dr. Nandan Marathe — MS Orthopaedics, Gold Medallist | Fellowship, University of Toronto
Orthopedic Spine Surgeon | Synapse Spine, Vasai & Virar
Dr. Marathe completed his MBBS and MS Orthopaedics as a Gold Medallist with Distinction from Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai — winning both the Ram Prabhoo Gold Medal and the Pandurangi Award for Best Orthopaedic Resident. He then completed a one-year clinical fellowship in complex spine surgery and deformities at the University of Toronto, Canada, trained in spinal tumours at Instituto Orthopaedico Rizzoli, Bologna, Italy, and did further training in minimally invasive and endoscopic spine surgery in South Korea. He holds both the AOSpine fellowship and the Indo-American Spine Alliance fellowship.
He is the author of over 146 peer-reviewed publications covering minimally invasive surgery, spinal infections, deformity correction, and tumour surgeries — a research output that is rare in Indian spine surgery at any level, let alone in a Vasai clinic.
For a patient in Virar or Vasai with a slipped disc, a deformity, or a spine tumour — this means their MRI is being read by someone whose research has been cited internationally, without needing to fight train crowds to get there.
Patients describe him as consistently available, responsive, and deeply attentive well beyond the surgery itself. One patient, just 3 days post-op, noted his spine posture was already better than it had been in years. Another, who had consulted five other specialists before finally agreeing to surgery, said he felt genuinely safe in Dr. Marathe’s hands — and that the follow-up care matched the surgical quality.
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Dr. Abhishek Kulkarni — MS Orthopaedics | International Fellowship, Texas, USA
Consultant Spine Surgeon & Pain Management Specialist | Synapse Spine, Mira Road & Bhayandar
Dr. Kulkarni completed his MBBS from K.J. Somaiya Medical College, Mumbai and MS Orthopaedics from MGM Medical College, Aurangabad, followed by an International Fellowship in Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery at St. Joseph Hospital, Texas, USA — a leading MIS spine centre in North America.
During training he directly operated on over 400 spine cases and assisted in over 1,000 procedures, covering ALIF, MIS TLIF, PLIF, LLIF, total disc replacement, percutaneous fixation, and spinal cord stimulator implantation. He has additionally performed over 1,000 pain management procedures — epidural injections, transforaminal lumbar blocks, vertebroplasty, and cervical blocks — making him one of the few surgeons in this part of Mumbai who combines surgical and pain management depth in a single practice.
He presented research at Spine Week 2020 in Melbourne — one of the world’s foremost spine surgery conferences — and has published in multiple peer-reviewed international journals.
He is the primary spine specialist for the Dahisar–Bhayandar corridor, practicing at two Synapse Spine locations in Mira Road and Bhayandar.
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The Trust Problem in This Part of Mumbai — And Why It’s Real
This is worth addressing honestly. Mira Road, Bhayandar, Vasai, and Virar have a large number of clinics and nursing homes. Many are run by dedicated doctors. But patients here face a genuine challenge — it can be difficult to distinguish between a highly trained specialist and someone who presents similarly but with significantly thinner credentials.
For spine surgery, where the wrong treatment can worsen a condition and unnecessary procedures are not unheard of, this uncertainty carries real risk. Families in this belt have learned, sometimes the hard way, that a confident manner does not substitute for verified training and surgical volume.
Dr. Marathe and Dr. Kulkarni offer something rare here: publicly verifiable credentials, training at institutions in India and abroad, published research, and membership in Synapse Spine — a network that has performed over 2,000 spine surgeries and treated more than 30,000 patients across Mumbai. That is an accountable, structured spine practice with transparent outcomes — not a name on a board outside a nursing home.
What Gets Treated Here..
Both clinics handle the full spectrum: slipped disc, sciatica, cervical and lumbar spondylosis, spinal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, degenerative disc disease, spine tumours, spine infections, and spinal cord injuries.
Surgical options include minimally invasive spine surgery, micro-discectomy, endoscopic discectomy, disc replacement, lumbar spinal fusion, ACDF, laminoplasty, vertebroplasty, and deformity correction. Non-surgical care — physiotherapy, root blocks, epidural injections, structured pain management — is always the first route explored. Surgery is recommended only when medically necessary.
The Quality of Care You Deserve Is Not a Function of Your Pin Code
If you’re in Bhayandar managing back pain with painkillers for months — you don’t need to travel to Bandra for an answer. If you’re in Vasai and a local doctor has recommended surgery but something doesn’t feel right — a second opinion from Dr. Marathe costs less than the anxiety of not getting one. If you’re in Virar and assume the good surgeons are all in South Mumbai — one of them trained in Toronto, published 146 papers, and sees patients in Vasai every week.
The doctors are here. The question is just whether you’ll call.
Book a Consultation
Dr. Nandan Marathe — Vasai & Virar
Kingston Tower, Shop No. 7, Kauls Heritage City, Vasai West – 401201
📞 7499898303
Dr. Abhishek Kulkarni — Mira Road & Bhayandar
Shop No. 10, Giriraj Tower, Mira Bhayander Link Road, opp. Indian Oil Petrol Pump, Mira Road East – 401107
📞 7499898303