Prof. Dr. Oswal Vasant
This year, we honor Prof. Dr. Oswal Vasant, a Pioneer in Laser surgery
Vasant Oswal is an Emeritus Consultant Otolaryngologist and Head and Neck surgeon at the James Cook University Hospital, Cleveland, England, and a recognized world authority in Lasers in ENT. Regarded as a pioneer in laser surgery in ENT in the UK, Vasant Oswal has written widely, authored and edited three books on lasers in ENT, and trained hundreds of surgeons in Cleveland International Laser Courses for over 28 years. He was also invited worldwide to over forty ENT centers to run laser courses and chair conferences. He was made an Honorary member of many professional organizations. He has been rightly awarded many prestigious honors throughout his long career. Amongst all, an award of FRCS by the Royal College of Surgeons of England by nomination and election, a rare recognition, stands proud.
Vasant Oswal was born and bred in Pune, a hundred miles southeast of Mumbai, India, in 1934, before the Second World War when there were no cars or buses on the road, and public transport was by horse-drawn carriages called Tonga.
In 1960, he qualified in Medicine from BJ Medical College in Pune. His post-graduate medical career started in Bombay (now known as Mumbai), where he passed the DORL in 1961 and MS in ENT in 1963. He moved to England for further training and was awarded the DLO (RCS) in England in 1964. An FRCS Edinburgh followed in 1967.
After he was appointed Consultant in ENT in 1969 to the North Riding Infirmary, Middlesbrough, he initially specialized in otology. He undertook temporal bone dissections exhibited in the Welcome Museum at the RCS and later photographed and published in the Colour Atlas of Anatomy, produced by Prof McMinn and Hutchings. In 1974, he received international acclaim in Toronto, Canada, for his method of managing laryngeal cancer involving a team. He was awarded a scroll: “Team concept in the management of laryngeal cancer,” now routinely practiced by a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) group. He was always interested in innovation. He foresaw the benefits of laser surgery in the larynx in the late 70s and raised funds to buy a CO2 laser for his department in Cleveland in 1982. He developed bespoke instruments for laser surgery in the larynx, including a flexible metal anesthetic tube, marketed as Oswal Hunton flexo-metallic fireproof anesthetic tube. He established the Cleveland International Laser course for 28 years, teaching laser techniques to numerous UK and international surgeons. He also traveled widely at the invitations of ENT centers worldwide and received many honors for his dedication. In 1992, he became Editor in Chief of a bi-monthly publication, ‘ENT News’ and developed it. It is the most-read bimonthly ENT magazine with 18000 copies distributed in 50 countries. Following his formal retirement in 1995, he was appointed as an Honorary Consultant surgeon and continued practice until 2008, when he received an appointment as an Emeritus Consultant surgeon. In his honor, the James Cook University Hospital named a consulting room ‘Oswal Rhinology Lab.’ He continued writing, teaching, and editing three major books regarded as reference books.