Dr. Sarang Gotecha is a senior neurosurgeon in Wakad, consulting at Sonigara Landmark near Chatrapati Chowk. With MCh Neurosurgery and dual international fellowships from Seoul and Singapore, he treats spine, brain and head-injury conditions. The clinic serves Wakad, Hinjewadi, Tathawade and Punawale patients, with surgery at Manipal Hospital, Baner.
Wakad has changed faster than almost any other suburb in Pune in the last fifteen years. What was once a small village on the western edge of PCMC is now the residential anchor of the Hinjewadi IT corridor. Industry estimates put the workforce at the Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park in Hinjewadi at over 200,000 IT professionals across its three phases. A large share of them lives in Wakad, Tathawade and Punawale.
This demographic shift has created a quiet medical pattern. The Wakad clinic now sees a steady stream of software professionals in their late twenties to early forties with cervical disc issues, lower back pain, tension headaches and sleep-related neurological symptoms. Almost all of them have something in common, ten or more hours a day at a laptop, often on a sofa or kitchen chair rather than an ergonomic workstation.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, roughly 60% of adult Indians experience significant back or neck pain at some point. For desk-job professionals, the figure is materially higher. AIIMS research has documented that prolonged sitting and poor laptop posture drive early-onset cervical spondylosis in Indian IT workers, often appearing a decade earlier than in non-desk populations.
Dr. Sarang Gotecha's Wakad practice has grown around this reality. As an MCh-qualified neurosurgeon with a Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery fellowship from St. Mary's Hospital, Seoul and a World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies fellowship from the National Neuroscience Institute, Singapore, he offers Wakad patients direct access to fellowship-trained brain and spine care without travelling to central Pune or Mumbai.
Most headaches, back pains and neck stiffness are not dangerous. But some symptoms need a neurosurgical opinion rather than another round of painkillers or another massage appointment.
A neurosurgical consultation is the right step if you experience:
A consultation does not commit you to surgery. The aim is a clear diagnosis and an honest opinion on whether intervention is needed. Many Wakad patients walk in expecting to be told they need surgery and walk out with a non-surgical plan instead.
This is the single most common reason Hinjewadi and Wakad professionals come to the clinic. The neck is built for movement, not for ten hours of forward flexion staring at a screen. Over months and years, the cervical discs wear down, the surrounding muscles weaken and the nerves running into the arms get irritated. The result is neck pain radiating into the shoulder or arm, often with tingling in the fingers. Most cases settle with physiotherapy, posture correction and a proper ergonomic setup. When they do not, minimally invasive spine surgery offers a quick-recovery option that lets IT professionals return to laptop work in two to three weeks.
Long commutes from Wakad and Hinjewadi to office (and the work-from-home posture problem) drive a steady volume of lumbar disc cases. Sciatica is the classic presentation: pain shooting from the lower back down the buttock and leg, often worse when sitting. About 80 to 90% of lumbar disc prolapses resolve with six to twelve weeks of physiotherapy and time. For the remainder, spine surgery options include microdiscectomy and endoscopic disc surgery. The choice depends on the size of the disc fragment and the symptoms.
Headaches are common among working professionals. Most are tension headaches, dehydration-related or migraine. But some headaches need imaging to rule out structural causes. Headaches that have changed in pattern, that wake you from sleep, that come with vomiting, vision changes or one-sided weakness need a neurosurgical opinion. The clinic visit will determine whether MRI imaging is needed.
An MRI ordered for headaches, dizziness or work-up of another condition sometimes shows a brain lesion that needs evaluation. Brain tumour surgery covers the full spectrum from benign meningiomas to high-grade gliomas. Not every brain tumour needs immediate surgery. The clinic visit will clarify what the lesion is, what the urgency is and what the treatment options look like.
The Wakad-Hinjewadi-Mumbai-Pune Highway corridor sees a high volume of two-wheeler and road accident cases. Falls at home, sports injuries and gym accidents are the other common causes of head trauma. Traumatic brain injury management ranges from observation in mild cases to emergency surgery for haemorrhages or rising intracranial pressure. Time matters in head injury. Manipal Hospital, Baner is the closest fully equipped neurosurgical centre for emergencies.
There are several reasons IT professionals and families in Wakad specifically choose Dr. Gotecha for neurosurgical opinions. They fall into four areas.
The two international fellowships Dr. Gotecha holds are exactly the right ones for a Wakad-Hinjewadi practice. The Seoul fellowship in Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery means most spine procedures can be done with small incisions and one to two day hospital stays. For software engineers worried about taking three weeks off work, this matters. The Singapore fellowship covers complex brain and skull base procedures for the harder cases.
Dr. Gotecha does not operate on MRI findings alone. Two patients with the same scan can need very different treatments depending on age, work demands, symptom severity and personal preference. Many young IT professionals come in expecting surgery and leave with a six-week physiotherapy plan instead. Some senior patients come in expecting they will be told to live with pain and leave with a clear surgical plan that restores walking distance. The honest answer matters more than a busy operating list.
Consultations are at the Wakad clinic for convenience. Surgical procedures are performed at Manipal Hospital, Baner, which has dedicated neurosurgical operating theatres with operating microscope, neuronavigation system, CUSA (Cavitron Ultrasonic Surgical Aspirator) and a full neuro ICU. From Wakad to Manipal Baner is roughly fifteen to twenty minutes by car.
Wakad patients come from a wide language background. Consultations are held in Hindi, Marathi or English depending on what the patient is most comfortable with. No patient should have to make a major medical decision in a language they only partly understand.
Address: Clinic No. 304, 3rd Floor, Sonigara Landmark, near Chatrapati Chowk Road, Dynasty Society, Vishnu Dev Nagar, Wakad, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Maharashtra 411057
Hours: Monday to Saturday - 9 AM to 9 PM | Sunday - Closed
Phone: +91-9322288645
Email: dr.sarangsgotecha@gmail.com
The clinic is on the third floor of Sonigara Landmark, close to Chatrapati Chowk in Wakad. Sonigara Landmark is a well-known commercial complex with parking and lift access. The location is central enough that patients from across the Hinjewadi-Wakad-Tathawade belt can reach the clinic without crossing major traffic chokepoints.
Approximate driving times from key Wakad and Hinjewadi locations:
For patients commuting from office at Hinjewadi, the clinic can be reached during a lunch break without disrupting the workday. This is one of the reasons many IT professionals find the Wakad clinic easier to attend than central Pune hospitals.
The Wakad clinic is geographically central to the western PCMC and Hinjewadi belt. Patients regularly travel from:
Spine consultations make up the largest single category at the Wakad clinic. The reason is simple, the population profile is dominated by people whose jobs involve prolonged sitting and screen work. Most of these patients do not need surgery. The cases that do need surgery generally fall into three groups:
For IT professionals specifically, the recovery question is what matters most. With minimally invasive endoscopic disc surgery, most patients are discharged in one to two days, can resume light desk work in two to three weeks and are back to full schedule within four to six weeks. Compared with traditional open spine surgery, this is significantly faster.
Most large IT employers in Hinjewadi offer group health insurance to their employees. This includes TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, Capgemini and many others. Manipal Hospital, Baner is empanelled with the major Indian insurers behind these group policies, including Star Health, ICICI Lombard, HDFC Ergo, Bajaj Allianz, Care Health and most TPA networks.
Practical advice for IT professionals considering surgery:
For non-emergency surgery, the planning window is usually two to three weeks. This gives enough time to align leave with the insurer's pre-authorisation timeline.
Patients sometimes arrive at the first visit feeling anxious, especially if they have been told elsewhere that they need surgery. The aim is to send them home with clarity, not more confusion.
A typical first consultation includes:
Bring all imaging films, reports and your current medication list. If you have been to another doctor already, bring that report too. The aim is a genuinely independent second opinion.
If neck pain, back pain, recurring headaches or an MRI finding has started to affect your work or sleep, the right next step is a proper diagnosis from a fellowship-trained neurosurgeon. Call 09322288645 to book a consultation at the Wakad clinic, or visit the contact page for clinic timings and directions. Wakad patients can also read about the spine surgery options available in PCMC, learn more about Dr. Sarang Gotecha, or explore the full range of neurosurgical services offered.
