I have been Dr Alwattar's patient from several medical practices. Originally, I sought his…read moreconsultation on my multiple time orthoscopic repaired right knee. His consul and treatments have felt right. Recent left hip and leg pain, I sought his advice. My appointment was made many weeks ago and in the interim, I saw another orthopedic doctor who provided treatment options and directions. Dr Alwattar concurred with those options. He gave me comfort and reassurance. I will continue to seek his advice in the future.

Dr. Alwattar was my surgeon for a hip replacement hip just over 10 years ago. The ordeal was a…read moredisaster. I awoke from the surgery with significant pain and an unbelievable amount of swelling. Both legs were twice normal size, and touching either, even lightly, produced an intense burning sensation. Oddly, in post surgical care, Dr. Alwattar did not acknowledge the condition for 6 weeks until I confronted him with a medical paper a physician friend had shown me: Alwattar had significantly damaged my femoral nerve. He grudgingly admitted the condition, but offered no referral or assistance. I now have to live with with the condition since nerve damage is not surgically repairable. Resting or with modest motion, I have continuous minor to moderate burning sensations in my thigh. I cannot engage in anything that requires vigorous movement because it produces intense pain. By contrast, I had my other hip replaced just over a year ago. Although I dreaded the ordeal and put it off for years, it was like a miracle by comparison. I took one opioid pain pill the first night, and afterward managed the pain with OTC medication. I hardly remember the recovery.

Everything went well Dr Stuffmann and staff were perfect machine for great outcome.read more

I was not completely happy with my experience with Dr. Stuffman relating to a shoulder injury and…read morediagnosed as a torn rotator cuff tear. Although he correctly diagnosed my problem and my need for physical therapy, he declined to refer me to a physical therapist office. Fortunately, my health plan has a good physical therapist office available for referral and Dr. Stuffman did provide a general order for the therapy. The therapist was very competent and requested that I obtain an ultrasound exam from Dr. Stuffman for aid in understanding my injury and providing the right physical therapy. This required another visit to Dr. Stuffman. For the purpose of thoroughness in making his diagno-sis, I think Dr. Stuffman should have performed the ultrasound (a 15 minute exam) in my initial visit with him. Dr. Stuffman also provided no prognosis for my injury, albeit the physical therapist recommended that I no longer do my upper body workouts with 5 lbs. weights or more for fear of aggravating the torn rotator cuff. On the plus side for Dr. Stuffman, he provided a online video for doing physical therapy and this video mentioned "easy" may be better in doing physical therapy weight lifting. This advise was very helpful because I tend to do too much sometimes

Dr. Robert Eppley is an excellent orthopedic surgeon. I had a severe tear of the supraspinatus…read moretendon and had rotator cuff surgery in my predominant right shoulder 4 years ago. The surgery center was efficient in scheduling and the results from the surgery today are excellent. He even provided me with 4 short videos of my surgery during the procedure where he commented on his findings. Earlier this year when I started having similar problems in my left shoulder I revisited him after an MRI and sure enough I had a similar tear; must have been those years of racing sailboats on the San Francisco Bay and some bad genetics. Anyway 6 weeks ago I had a similar surgery on my left rotator cuff, and all is going well with the recovery. Now it's up to me to do the PT required to get the arm fully functional again. I can't say enough good things about Dr. Eppley, an excellent surgeon who is also extremely personable, shares photos of his lovely dog and his recent vacations. While it's true that now he's under Sutter Health he's more difficult to get ahold of, he's worth the frustration and once you visit his office you can email them much more easily.

Dr Eppley may be a fine doctor, but the office set up is more than disappointing. It's very hard to…read moreget an appt with any doctor, b/c they are busy. I get that. But in this case, I was given an appt a month ago and I grabbed the only slot that was available. Weeks later, his office called and said he is limiting new patients. Why did they set up an appointment in the first place? The appt was in 3 weeks. Now, I must find another doctor, and the wait will also be quite long. This is a lousy way to treat potential patients, but more important, it's a lousy way to treat people who are in pain. Make the appt or don't, but don't back out at the last minute.

I have seen Dr. Zwahlen a few times now for various issues with back, butt muscles and recently a…read moreshoulder injury. I have had a lot of broken bones and surgeries and hospital stays and orthopedic surgeons who have patched me up in the past to go on to do more stupid stuff. Luckily Dr. Zwahlen is here to help. Because of my awesome partner and I want to be around a little longer I have stopped doing stupid stuff like flying my experimental airplane, stopped rock climbing (and falling), stopped intense snow skiing/boarding (no moe flips), and stopped other activities from which I have some how miraculously survived (I may have more lives than a cat). Given that, I can still do stupid things in the gym. Recently trying to hang for a minute, yes all 60 seconds, I realized something was wrong and dropped at around the 45 second mark. I kept thinking it would get better and it didn't and was starting to think major jacked up rotator cuff and maybe surgery, again. Well after some imaging the good doctor determined "nothing was torn but very, very angry". So going forward, for awhile, no exercises engaging the shoulder except a few very detailed lifts. A lot of surgeons like to cut, that's what they do. So I appreciate it when the knife is not the first response and second when lots of drugs aren't the answer. Hhhmm, may rethink that last part. Already a week in with daily exercises prescribed by the doc my shoulder is much better and this is way better than rehabbing shoulder surgery. Two closing thoughts. If you are active you need an orthopedic surgeon on speed dial. Dr Zwahlen is the man. If you sit on the couch all day you need a dietician and a mortician. Also, before seeing the good doctor you might want to have a few esspressos to match his energy level.

Dr Zwahle sold me there was no option for me to repair my shoulder other than a reverse shoulder…read morereplacement. Rather than saying he would do it after telling me last Spring that my shoulder was "hanging by a thread", he left the room after telling me I should modify my routine." Luckily I found a good surgeon affiliated with UCSF, had surgery on August 20, and am pain free. What Zwahle did was unethical. If he couldn't do the surgery, he should have said so. Instead his assistant just said "got some analgesic cream"!

Dr. Shen has moved his Oakland office to 5700 Telegraph, so this office is closed. However, Dr…read more Shen (at any location) is wonderful. He has really cared about managing my chronic back pain.

My pelvis is fractured, broken. X-ray makes this clear. Shen should have passed on his steroidal…read moreinjection and sent me up the ladder to a surgeon. The shot was utterly ineffective. The negative side effects of this drug are myriad. But this is what Shen does. Instead of recognizing a condition well over his head, he wanted more injections, like a Bandaid on a ruptured artery. Not impressed by has diagnostic acumen.

Dr.Strudwick is the best Ortho doc in the area! Quality care! Professional, knowledge with an…read moreexcellent staff! Highly recommend.

One could not get a better doctor for orthopedic care. My god, just look at his credentials having…read morebeen the team doctor for both the Raiders and the Athletics when they were both here. I cannot say enough good things about the quality of his care and professionalism of his staff. Paul Cummins

Still suffering from the bad foot surgery I had from Jeffrey Mann over a decade ago. I wish I had…read morenever been his patient!

I cannot thank Dr.Mann enough. A true professional and knows exactly what he's doing. He treated…read moremy Mom for a left ankle tendon and had to put five screw in her ankle. Obviously we were completely nervous about the procedure, but there is no other doctor that my mom would do it with. Hundred percent would recommend him to anybody. Thank you again. This procedure is changing my mom's life already. We will forever be grateful. We also cannot forget about the office staff who were extremely professional and amazing.

Overall extremely disappointing experience at Golden State Orthopedics Physical Therapy. From start…read moreto finish, the administrative side of this clinic was disorganized, inefficient, and frustrating. The front desk staff member, Shellie, was consistently rude and unprofessional in her communication. Simple questions were met with attitude, and there was little effort to be helpful or respectful. For a medical office, that lack of professionalism is unacceptable. On top of that, coordination between providers, referrals, and insurance was handled poorly, leaving me stuck in the middle repeatedly and causing unnecessary stress and delays in care. Rather than taking ownership of the issues, responsibility was pushed back onto me as the patient. I expected a much higher standard of care and communication. Unfortunately, I would not recommend this clinic to anyone looking for organized, patient focused care.

Perplexed by some of the negative reviews and decided to add mine to be fair…read more I worked with Chris first on my achilles tendinitis then medial meniscus tear. Ankle has become 100% painless and functional. Currently working on knee, preparing for a half marathon in 2 weeks. Chris pays attention and listens to his patients. He then customizes exercises to help with the healing process. He pushes me just hard enough to get beneficial results without adding to the existing pain. I am miraculously ready for my half marathon thanks to Chris! I made it a point to ask for Chris after my ankle was healed but then knee started acting up. Chris is and will be my go to Physical Therapist. I am also very used to checking in with an iPad sort of situation so I am not at the very least bothered by checking in with a friendly person on a computer screen. Receptionist lady is always busy making calls to help schedule patients so I completely understand the need. She also gladly checked me in one time when the computer screen was not working. At the main clinic, I had no issue getting appointments for MRI and with Dr Talarico and Dr Sagoo, all within 48 hours. My GP Dr Lawrence told me to throw his name around. I think he's joking, isn't he?