He graduated from the "Faculté Francaise de Médecine" in Beirut in 1950 as MD and then moved to Chicago to specialize in Orthopaedic Surgery at Cook County Hospital with Professor Hampar Kelikian. Returning to Lebanon, Riachi founded the first service of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology in the Middle-East in 1954, within Beirut's St George Hospital. He was also the founder and first President of the Lebanese Orthopaedic Association.[3]