I cannot comment on the skill of this Doctor at all but I can say...I submitted a request for a…read morevirtual consultation as described on his website. I sent a request from said website. I never heard back from anyone. I called today and was told he does not do these consultations anymore now that the covid restrictions have been lifted. Someone needs to change the website and stop the false advertising. I live in NJ and can bearly walk so a in person visit is out of the question. I am a senior and all alone so.....Who do you believe or trust these days....not sure our medical system is in a sad state of affairs.

I was referred to a DO Dr. Varlotta from this office who put me through the most painful experience…read moreof my life, with absolutely no positive results. Furthermore, the procedure and practitioner overcharged and is not approved by medicare not insurance. I would find another office to trust you health and well being with.

I spent 3 years trying different therapies for relief from intense sciatic pain. After a failed…read morelaminectomy (authored by a different physician at a major NYC hospital), a Castle & Connolly physician recommended Dr. McCance. One month later, Dr. McCance surgically corrected the prior surgery. I was, within a few days following surgery, completely pain free for the first time in years. Now, 5 years to the month (almost) later after his surgery, I am still pain free. To everyone, he is Dr. McCance. To me, he is Saint McCance.

Dr Matusz has operated on me 3 different times for spinal stenosis and I think he is an…read moreextraordinary surgeon and an extremely compassionate doctor. He explained his procedures and my post operative care clearly and directly and answered all my questions quickly during recovery. I am grateful to him for the active life I still lead and for helping me to face the surgeries without fear . I recommend him to anyone with spinal issues l

The office manager gave me her card, then never returned a call…read more A nurse practitioner didn't read the medical notes and invented a story which made no sense. The attitude of the office workers was uninterested which made the entire experience a waste of time.

Staff is attentive and helpful Dr. Sood and her staff are both expert and supportive. The…read moreprocedures are explained in detail as they proceed and concern for the patient's comfort is unwavering.

Had surgery in 1997. Its 2024 and thanks to Dr.Elowitz i was able to see my son grow to the 31yr…read moreold man he is today and many more years to go . Thank you with sincerely appreciation [:

My mother and I are both thrilled with Dr. Elowitz' expertise. My mother is 84 years old and had…read morebeen in severe pain for three years. Her back pain radiated into her left leg and she had great difficulty walking, sitting and lying down. Her lifestyle changed dramatically and she could no longer keep up in activities with my father. My mother tried the usual treatments ie. chiropractic, physical therapy, acupuncture and epidural injections however did not experience any lasting relief. A laminectomy was the only answer. I researched surgeons for my mother as I am a registered nurse. I found three top spine surgeons including Dr. Elowitz in NYC and we scheduled consult appointments with each. Dr. Elowitz was the only surgeon who was confident that a minimally invasive laminectomy was the way to go. The other surgeons wanted to cut up and rebuild my mother's spine (including performing a fusion) which was way over the top for an 84 year old woman. My mother and I did not feel that she would survive the recovery period for a fusion which is very involved. We chose Dr. Elowitz to perform my mother's surgery. Her care was top notch every step of the way. From admitting to preop to operating room to recovery room to the hospital floor where my mother stayed overnight (as did I), everyone we dealt with was professional, competent and ready to help. Dr. Elowitz even has hospital privileges to admit his patients to the 15th floor at Weill Cornell which is a post surgical floor with only private rooms and views of NYC and the river. We were very impressed. Dr. Elowitz spoke with us before the surgery, numerous times on the day of the surgery and checked on my mother at 7:00 AM the day after the surgery. He gave us as much time as we needed to answer all questions and told us to contact him at any time if we needed him. The surgery went well. My mother is presently 10 days postop and feels much better. She no longer has tingling down her leg. Dr. Elowitz says that my mother's nerve was damaged over the past three years and that she will continue to see improvement over the next few months as her nerve repairs itself. My parents have been going for walks all over the neighborhood since her second day postop! My mother could barely walk before the surgery from her bed to the bathroom. We absolutely made the right decision to go with Dr. Elowitz for surgery. He obviously is capable of performing a more intensive surgery (as the other surgeons we consulted suggested) but he took into consideration my mother's age and type of recovery that she would experience and performed the perfect surgery for her. I highly recommend Dr. Elowitz. He is a highly competent neurosurgeon who happens to have a wonderful bedside manner as well. Edward Butler, NP: My mother and I are very impressed with the competence, practical knowledge and professionalism of Ed Butler, who is Dr. Elowitz' NP (Nurse Practitioner). My mother is 84 years old and needed a laminectomy. I am a registered nurse and helped my mother chose Dr. Elowitz as her neurosurgeon. We spoke with Ed Butler who took a through history before we saw Dr. Elowitz. We also met with Ed at the two week postop visit before seeing Dr. Elowitz as well. Ed treated us with respect and responded to all of our many questions. Ed has worked in spine surgery for quite some time and has a wealth of experience to draw upon. My mother thought that she was having an allergic reaction two days postop and we called the office. We were put through immediately to Ed who considered my mother's symptoms and gave recommendations. Ed realized that my mother was experiencing throat tightness due to residual soreness from the breathing tube that had been inserted during surgery and was not having an allergic reaction. I had told my mother the same thing but she had to hear it from Ed, not me. A few days later, my mother called Ed with another question and he promptly called her back. All too often, it is very difficult to get in contact with medical personnel after surgery. The patient seems to be forgotten. That is not the case with Dr. Elowitz and Ed Butler. They make their patients very comfortable and assure them that they are always available for problems or questions.

I don't know about you, but I've been pretty disappointed in the world lately. It seems as though…read moreall of this (:: gestures at everything ::) is being run by incompetents. I grew up thinking that there were systems in place, people in charge that would ensure the world wouldn't tumble into utter chaos...and now I've grown up to find that that is categorically untrue. There are no adults in the room. I could go on with this unrelated, unprompted tangent, but all this is to say that the Hospital for Special Surgery restored my faith in humanity. My mother needed an partial knee replacement, and as her primary helper in all things, I handled the communication, brought her to her appointments, brought her in for surgery, waited, and took her home. Please believe me when I say that every step of the process was handled efficiently, and every one of the many, many people we dealt with was not just good at their job, but they were also courteous and usually downright lovely. Having spent time in several hospitals, this was not what I expected. It was what I hoped for of course, but certainly hasn't been my past experience. From the security personnel who welcomed us to the check-in desk to the intake folks to the nurses who prepped her to the surgeon who operated to the folks who run the Family Atrium where we wait for our people to get released to the nurses who took care of my mom post-op, everyone was organized and impressively on top of things. We had a very slight hiccup with her prescriptions, and the nurse in charge was mortified and immediately worked quite tirelessly to make sure it was taken care of, and later followed up with me to make sure we were all set. I'm not pretending that this will not be an annoying and repetitive process. There is waiting involved (less than you might think though). And if you have surgery, you're going to have seventeen different people ask you who you are, your birth date, what surgery you're getting and more...but better that than them replacing the wrong knee. Best of all, the surgery went smoothly and a little more than a week out, my mom is doing great. If and when I need surgery of my own, I will gladly come to HSS.

I can't say enough great things about this hospital. They are professional, clean, pleasant and…read morethorough. Dr. Elizabeth Gausden is smart and attentive. Could not have asked for better.

Never met her. A fellow and a resident came in. Explained I was in horrendous knee pain. Ordered…read morex-rays that were not approved of. No one gave any other suggestions about what was to be done if anything. That was an absolutely wasted time and money. I have had knee problems for 40 years and at times have been to physical therapy etc or given something like meloxicam but absolutely zilch. Not even a follow up call from the office to tell me the x-rays were denied. My husband begged me to see someone - well I picked the wrong doctor's office.

Dr.Patel is a liar, a Butcher & a Back Staber ( literally). She deceived me into having a "Mild…read moreProcedure" to remove a piece of my L4/L5 herniated disc that was pressing against my spine. She let one of her groupies , play doctor with my body. I felt like a piece of meat being devoured by a bunch of Hienas. They poked my spine. It was like a horror movie. I never felt so much pain in my life. I am still feeling the pain one month later. Now I am feeling worse than before the surgery. She charged my insurance $30,000. When I complained about it, she gave me a lot of mambo jamboree and told to look fora Real Surgeon. She is only a Pain management whatever....

My husband was involved in a horrible incident while visiting New Orleans. He was out with friends…read morewhen a shooting occurred not far from them and he was knocked down during the stampede of panicked people. He was thrown down and landed hard on his shoulder. The ER down there told him his shoulder was broken and he should see an orthopedist right away as he would need surgery. Our GP recommended Dr. Cleeman and the amazing receptionist,Toni, in the Manhattan Ortho Astoria office was able to fit us in a couple days later. X-rays confirmed the shoulder was not only broken but it was shattered! Dr Cleeman said it was one of the worst cases like this he had ever seen. The ball was literally flipped over from the socket joint and was hanging upside down. YIKES. Rather than replacing the entire shoulder, most likely requiring future surgeries for upkeep, Dr. Cleeman felt he could repair the bones and put Humpty Dumpty back together again. And a couple days later, he did just that! After a very successful four hour surgery and a couple hours in recovery, hubs was home on the couch! At his follow up appointment a couple weeks later, he could already move the shoulder a bit and was recovering well. Dr Cleeman removed the bandages and I couldn't believe what we saw. What I forgot to mention earlier is that my husband has a half sleeve tattoo that goes up over his shoulder. It is very special to us as it has the US and Icelandic flags intertwined with a compass representing our paths in life that led us to each other (I am from Iceland originally). We had already accepted the fact that the tattoo would have to be cut for the surgery and Dr. Cleeman told us that the incision would go directly through the center of the Icelandic flag. But when he took off those bandages, we could hardly even tell where the incision had been made! Partly due to the glue they use now rather than exterior stitches, but mostly due to the fact that Dr Cleeman is a true artist and moved the incision place over a bit. He said putting the tattoo back together took almost as long as putting the shoulder back together but he he knew it was important to us. WOW! I literally had tears in my eyes. What an incredibly awesome and unexpected surprise!! It's about three months post surgery now and my husband is recovering so well and we couldn't be happier! Everything about our experience with Manhattan Ortho has been great! Toni has always been responsive and so helpful every time we have called and needed anything. They are both such caring people and I am so thrilled to be able to recommend them to anyone looking for an Orthopedist!!

I came here a few months ago and left feeling incredibly disappointed by Dr. Duarte. As time…read moreprogressed, I became increasingly disappointed with the entire office. Medical care: I saw Dr. Duarte for foot pain. First time i saw him, he was very distracted and answered his personal phone. Then, he sent me for an MRI. When I went back the second time to review the MRI results, he was over an hour late to our appointment and said "yeah I have other patients". Upon glimpsing over the MRI, he said "you have dead bone in your big toe". He advised me to stop running, to stop wearing high heels and stop doing anything that caused me pain etc. and offered to go over shoes I wear with me to ensure comfort. When I asked for physical therapy to regain movement in my toe, he said "I don't prescribe that when the bone has atrophied like that". At 32 years old, limiting me in this way led me to get a second opinion. The second doctor identified the issue and many months later, I'm doing PT to address it. I have since regained mobility in my big toe and can enjoy sports again. Approval for an MRI: I called 4 times so someone would get back to me and left multiple voicemails when following the right IVR process. I eventually selected a different number, got to a person who said "oh we never check that voicemail". Billing: of course, several months after I saw Dr. Duarte, I find out they didn't bill my insurance correctly so I "owed" a $400+ bill. All in all, with the exception of one person who cared about the billing issue, I wouldn't recommend any aspect of this practice and definitely not the doctor who showed such indifference to his patient's problem.

Dr. Baaj working at Banner University Hospital in Phoenix at the time, performed a spine fusion on…read moreme in 2021 from my pelvis to T10, I'm a male, age 62 in 2021. After 2 weeks during after surgery follow up I asked him why I was tilting to the left, he said all my muscles were cut and I would have to wait for 2 years for my muscles to get strong enough to straighten me back up. 3 months later the rods came out of the couplings and had to go back in for surgery to put them back in. Over the 2 year period I was having a lot of trouble because I was tilted to the left. After 2 years I asked for it to be fixed because I was having to much pain, and Dr. Baaj responded that no surgeon would ever go back in to fix it because I was high risk and should look into getting a lift placed in my left shoe to straighten me up. I did so having a foot specialist determine it would take a 7/8" lift to equalize me. The lift never helped, so I was not only living with pain but also was getting depressed because I had nothing to look forward to. I moved to San Diego in December 2023 and started going to a pain management doctor, he decided to send me to see a Neurosurgeon for a consultation in mid 24, thinking he could assist with all the pain I was having at T10. He was unable to assist but said I should see Dr. Mundis, an Orthopedic Surgeon at Scripps in La Jolla. Dr Mundis said he could help, I was under the impression that he was going to do something around the T10 area, but he informed me that he was going to pull out all the hardware from my pelvis to T10 and install new hardware from my pelvis to T3. He determined with testing that I was not high risk and he promised I would once again be straight and if I wasn't he would go back in and fix any issues. I actually had tears in my eyes because it gave me hope. Just as a note, I was actually straight, looking front to back before my surgery with Dr. Baaj, but from side to side I was a mess. I went through the new spine fusion in Oct 24 and as promised I was perfectly straight. I highly recommend Dr. Mundis for severely deformed spines. To close, I put down that MAYBE I would recommend Dr. Baaj for future surgeries, because advancements in technology could assist Dr. Baaj to better insure the spine fusions turn out the way they are supposed to turn out. I may have been a difficult case, but Dr. Baaj never once offered to correct the fusion after he realized I was tilting to the left. 2nd, he took all my hope away when he said that no other doctor would ever go back in to fix it, so I lived with it for 3.5 years until I found out otherwise. You may turn out well with Dr. Baaj but I lost all confidence in him. If any Doctor ever wanted to view the before and after views of Dr. Baaj's work and the results of Dr. Mundis's work, all they need to look at are the full body X-rays. I suffered for 3.5 years and had it not been for a caring pain management doctor, Dr. Patel who actually cared about getting me some relief and getting me off of morphine I would still be suffering because I was not looking for another surgeon because Dr. Baaj told me himself that no surgeon would ever go back in to fix it. These comments are true to the best of my memory.

Horrible. Basilar Invaginarion. Failure & my daughter got MRSA & Sepsis & is on life long…read moreantibiotics. We noticed green infection right away f called Dr. Leslie Cohen Plastic Surgeon made us wait until our 2 week visit to see her & sis not perform blood work. We listened to them & she suffered thru many months of treatment ,intubation opening & cleaning the wound,surgery for lumps pic lines & still years later the surgery failed & no one will touch her because of the poor surgery that was done by Dr. Baaj & Dr. Leslie Cohen. She has no life because & neither do we. They promised she would be better but they made her worse. I felt confident when we first met them now I'm sorry I entrusted my daughter. Cohen wasn't even Board Certified when she did the surgery we found out later & we traveled from Pa to N.Y. & she never had the equipment when got there. We made trips there for nothing. She was very disorganized & never showed compassion. Being a fool I even bought her flowers as a thank you gift. Yellow because she said she like yellow flowers & had them at her wedding. I'm not mean but I'm so hurt what they did to my daughter & no one stood up for her or helped her. We couldn't get a lawyer because when they found out who her parents were they wouldn't take the case. Up until then they were all into it. Guess they have a lot of political pull also. Even within the hospital their lawyer was brusk with my husband but I bet if it was her children or grandchildren it would be a different story. Even after all these years I had to say something because eats away when she can't sleep because she hurts so badly & her neck is twisted. They fused her neck so she can't turn it screwin it are loose f she's always in pain & no one can or will help her. I curse the day I entrusted my daughter to these drs.

If you want to get bacterial meningitis and get a FaceTime from your doctor, come here!read more

We are beyond grateful for the care my husband received from Dr. Theodore Schwartz at Mount Sinai…read moreHospital. From the very beginning, he went above and beyond--personally ensuring my husband was transferred from a local hospital to Mount Sinai Hospital so he could receive the specialized treatment he urgently needed. Dr. Schwartz took the time to explain everything clearly and thoroughly, ensuring we fully understood what was happening at every step. His bedside manner was exceptional: calm, compassionate, and reassuring during one of the most frightening times in our lives. It was immediately clear that he is not only extremely knowledgeable but also truly top-notch in his field. What impressed us most was his expertise and quick thinking during surgery. He had the foresight to take a portion of the biopsy and have it frozen for a preliminary pathology determination. This saved us critical time, and in our case, time mattered--because the final diagnosis of Primary Brain Lymphoma required chemotherapy to begin as quickly as possible. Even after surgery, Dr. Schwartz continued to check in on us, which meant more than words can express. He treated my husband like a person, not just a case, and that kind of care is rare. If you are looking for a skilled, thorough, compassionate, and willing-to-fight-for-his-patients neurosurgeon, I cannot recommend Dr. Schwartz highly enough.

I had A horrific car accident in 2018 was beyond petrified to have the neck surgery due to four…read moreherniations and a pinched nerve in my neck, interviewed eight Spinal surgeons the moment I met Dr. Lebl I felt I was in good hands. I had the surgery on election day of 2022 was released the next day. had zero pain in my neck from the surgery. It took me four years to get the courage to have the surgery wish I would've met Dr. level from the beginning

I had what should have been a routine discectomy with Dr. Lebl. One week after surgery my back…read morelooked like the skin had been attached to the wrong place (not just according to me, according to a plastic surgeon I consulted). Dr Lebl insisted this was normal and it would 'resolve' itself. 5 weeks after surgery the skin had come loose and filled with fluid (a seroma, extremely rare in properly done discectomies), which started leaking and got infected, necessitating a second surgery after which I carried around a blood bag and a suction machine for 2 weeks. In order to re-close the wound properly the plastic surgeon had to pull paraspinal muscles over my spinal column and now I have a significant and permanent lump on my lumbar spine. After the first surgery Dr Lebl did not follow up with me unless I called him or emailed him multiple times. After week 1 (at which point he had seen the wound closure) he didn't follow up at all. At no point did he ever mention that a seroma was a possibility or that I should be careful. If he had it's possible this wouldn't have happened, or it could have been caught before it started leaking and got infected. Throughout the entire process he was unresponsive, unsympathetic and seemingly uninterested in anything I was going through. There are many wonderful orthopedic surgeons in NYC - do what I wish I had, and pick anyone other than Dr. Lebl.