Dr. Lee has been treating me for many years. He is both personable and compassionate. I have been plagued with both cervical and lumbar spine pain. After exploring all non-invasive treatments for my very painful cervical pain, Dr. Lee performed an anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion (ACDF). It was successful. I achieved complete relief from neck and shoulder pain. Dr. Lee is the best at his speciality and I highly recommend him! read more

I have been here for a consultation with Dr. Lee. I found him and all the staff to be professional, friendly and caring. If you are reading this, you probably have some serious medical issues. I can only wish you good luck getting better. read more

I can't believe how awful this place is. First of all the staff that answers the phone were very rude, when I asked if they could text me the information I needed for something they said "we don't text" now you should have heard the condescending way they said it, this is all before I ever even go there for very bad back pain I have been experiencing since 2024. He (Steven Lee, who like another person said shouldn't be called Dr because of how unprofessional and how un comfortable he makes his patients) He walked in, and as one other review on here said his face went flat, all he could talk about was what the athletes he treats going through so much worse, it was as if he was saying I don't want to deal with regular people who have regular back pain I want to deal with cool athletes and the millions of $s they give me. He also obviously didn't like that I was over weight and said I'll give you suggestions but I don't think you'll do them, that's literally what he said, he was literally in the room not even a few minutes then left with the awful attitude worse then his phone answering staff. He definitely has a chip on his shoulder and should see a good psycho analyst who specializes in anger management and over all rotten attitudes. It's safe to say I'll never come here again. Damn you Steven Lee read more

2nd time dealing with Dr. Lee and it was worse than the first time. The first time he essentially said he wouldn't help me due to my weight. Never mind the excruciating pain I was in. I found an amazing surgeon by the name of Maxwell Merkow who not only helped me, but was impressed at how quickly I bounced back after my 7 hour spinal fusion. He went in through the back and the front, and said I had a lot of damage - he was compassionate and knowledgeable enough to take me in. 5 years later, I suddenly have intense hip and low back pain as well as numbness and electrical shock things going through my left leg. GSO&S ER said to go to Dr. Lee for help and pain management. The instant he walked in, his face was just flat. He listened to me for 2 minutes, cut me off and looked me in the eyes and asked "What do you think I can do for you?" I stammered and said I don't know, maybe injections? He said well its obvious the area below your fusion is degenerating, "but what is it you want me to do?" I started to cry... He closed the file, stood up and with his hand on the door nob said, "Yeah I'll see who I can see who can do bilateral injections, oh and maybe some PT" and opened the door and walked out. He made me feel stupid. He mad me feel like I wasted his time. He was cold, and didn't even try to hide it. I walked out to my truck and broke down crying. It was beyond frustrating to be in that much pain, to be worried and scared, just to be talked to like you're the problem. It was awful and shameful - Never again! read more

Wow!! Dr. Lee was very quick, no bedside manner!! I was in excruciating pain and he couldn't prescribe me anything...right away he says "oh yea, I looked at your MRI , it doesn't look good..there is nothing I can do for you, so I'm sending a referral to UCSF" WTAF??!! He wasn't even in there for 5 min!!! I had to pay a co-pay for that???? I will never recommend golden state orthopedics!! read more

***Update 5/10/24 *** Dr Lee's office contacted me and explained the reason for our cancellation and I am satisfied that it was necessary. Dr Lee is a very caring and supportive doctor and I'm so glad we have found him. Our treatment is back on schedule for 5/16/24. I truly believe the care we have received by Dr Lee has been great . We look forward to the epidural for lower back pain (L3-L4) in a few days . I very much trust Dr Lee read more

I have been a patient of Dr. Steven Lee for several months. He is fantastic. Dr. Lee is very warm and takes my health as his primary concern. I had a spinal injection today. Everything went perfectly. Dr. Lee is the best. read more

I am now 14 months post fusion / laminectomy Lower lumbar surgery. I feel stronger than I have in 10 years. I went in with drop foot, not able to stand for more than 2 minutes and severe nerve compression ( amongst other spinal issues). I can now work out again and feel great. I was even able to walk more then 5 miles in the forest, pain free, 3 months post surgery. Dr. Lee was more than honest in not making any promises of potential out-comes post surgery but helped me make the best decisions for me. Dr. Lee was open to listening to my concerns and questions and offered a temporary solution to prolong surgery for a few months. He was positive, professional, attentive and very welcoming with a warm demeanor. Dr. Lee is not only one of the best Nero Surgeons but is also very personable. I have recommended Dr. Lee to other people suffering similar condition. read more

I have vast amounts of experience with spine surgeons, unfortunately, as I have many serious spine problems. Dr. Lee is thee most uncaring, cold, hand-on-the-door-to-leave surgeon I have EVER met with. He did not smile when he met me, he did not ask how I am doing, he did not discuss my medical record except to look at a 3 year old out of date MRI and determine from that what he felt I needed. Dr. Lee gave me the impression that it was MY fault that my back is all screwed up, despite the undisputed and clear fact that I had a terrible accident at work and was hurt very badly. I was appalled. My life has become a living hell, and I get a condescending attitude from a medical doctor? This man is HORRIBLE. He has no soul. Look, I expect surgeons to have ego and great confidence in what they do. They can be snotty. They can have a God-complex. But Dr. Lee was far more than that - he was just plain MEAN. Uncaring, dismissive, not willing to go into detail about my very serious issues, on and on. What a colossal waste of my time. What an upsetting experience. If you are considering seeing Dr. Steven S. Lee at Muir Orthopedics, I recommend running away like you are on fire. Literally the worst medical professional I have ever seen in my life. read more

I found Dr. Lee to be professional and efficient. Granted he's not very warm and fuzzy, neither am I, but my disability has created many visits to many docs and I put weight on the Docs proficiency. I found him to be to the point and easy to talk to. I possibly have 2 fine cracks in spine along with sciatica. Im confident he will treat me appropriately. read more

After developing drop foot, spinal stenosis, etc. and Kaiser neglecting it, even going as far as denying me a referral to see an orthopedic, I was very nervous about seeing Dr. Lee. From my first appointment he was very caring and cautious and recognized the seriousness that Kaiser failed to address, and before I left his office, I was scheduled for surgery the following week. Now I am 2 and a half months post op and feeling amazing! Dr. Lee is very caring and considerate and I would recommend him to anyone. read more

I agree with all negative reviews.This Dr.dumped me as a patient.I couldn't believe it.

This doctor is cold and not caring and not interested at all in the patient. If he has no solution he will not waste his time. I have loved every doctor that is part of the John Muir network. This particular doctor does not even try to pretend to take an interest. He needs to take a course in empathy. He would fail miserably in my line of business. read more

Do not go to this doctor. He spends little time with the patient, refers you to procedures that you are not eligible for and does not take the time of day to actually listen to the patient. I am suffering from upper back pain and have been for six years and he not only did not any physical therapy or other procedures that might help to alleviate the pain but only spent five minutes actually talking to me. He took away my low dosage pain medication and told me to continue taking the muscle relaxants that put me in the ER. He then ordered a spinal procedure without once talking to me about it or making sure that I was actually eligible for the procedure. This doctor is an inconsiderate ass that has only prolonged my journey to relief. DO NOT GO TO DR. LEE! read more

Steven Lee is the kind of doctor I like .... focused, straight forward, extremely talented with great medical credentials, listens carefully to your concerns .... and provides you with solutions ....and options regarding those solutions. He seems to have a profound understanding of how painful and limiting back and neck (spinal) problems can be and how to address each differing situation. He doesn't spend time chatting you up, he's in it for the "fix" and surgery is spoken of as his last resort. (With my particular neck stenosis condition it's physical therapy .... then epidural injection .... then if necessary, laprascopic surgery.) Steve took the time to review my x-rays and MRI with me, pointing out the problem area and explaining options we had to "get me up and running" again. read more

Dr.Steven Lee fused 2 vertabrae, inserted rods and spacers and shaved off some bone last February in my back, to deal with severe stenosis and spondilolisthesis. He was very straight forward and honest about recovery and activities. I did some pt after 4 months. I am pain free and have a strong back. Dr. Lee is at the top of his game! If you want an extremely skilled surgeon he is one! Come to appts with questions and he'll let you know the score. Carol read more

This is my first time writing a yelp review. I've never had such a horrible experience with a medical professional. Dr. Lee was extremely rude, arrogant and seemed very bothered by just my presence being at this appointment. I paid to get his professional opinion, and definitely didn't need to feel like my appointment was an annoyance to him. I'm in the health profession as well, and would never speak to my patients like he did or treat them that way. I don't care if he's a good surgeon, there has to be some sort of compassion to be in this line of work. I wish I read his yelp reviews before I decided to see him, because I definitely wouldn't have. He has bad reviews for a reason and desperately needs to work on his basic people skills. read more

Dr. Lee explains the process and is somewhat friendly but lacked the patience when talking to an elderly patient. My mother expresses a lot of concerns in her medical care and may reiterate her point a few times but I expect a doctor to practice compassion and patience for her. We are all nearing the time in our life that we will repeat ourselves, or not understand conversations as clearly. A doctor, of all people, should be sensitive to these realities. He may be a wonderful surgeon but bedside manner is not his strong suit. read more

Sadly I have to agree with the reviews I've read. Dr. Lee was not friendly and very cold. He came in and took one look at my X-ray that was on the computer screen and said "is that your neck"? I asked "is it bad"? He then asked if I took any MRI's and I responded yes. He searched the computer and looked at one view. In the 10 minutes that he saw me he said "you have arthritis throughout your neck and you have mild stenosis. Eventually your stenosis will progress". He briefly talked about surgery options in the future and said "when your arms and hands starts to become numb and the pain is severe come back. I hate how this sounds but not much I can do. Continue to take your anti inflammatory and pain meds. Do yoga, tai chi; keep moving and stay active". I said "that's it"? I left and will not return to him when that time comes. WOW!! read more

Dr Lee was great. I did not have the same experience that other posts mentioned. He was quick to develop a plan on diagnosing my issue. We uncovered that surgery was not necessary. It was great to go to a surgeon that was open to exploring other conditions that wouldn't require invasive surgery. I loved his patience and follow up on discussing my condition. He worked around my schedule. I would highly recommend him! read more

Dr. Steven S Lee is a very arrogant and uncaring doctor. I don't think he even deserve one star. I visited his office twice. The first time I saw a very nice and knowledgeable physician assistant (PA). At the end of that visit, Dr. Lee stopped by for a second and the PA told him her impression and Dr. Lee agreed with her plan and left. He did not even bother to exam my neck and shoulder. The next time I was scheduled to see him, he made me wait for a long time and when he finally showed up, he looked at me with such annoyance that I felt really bad for being there. He was very impatient and annoyed with my questions. It was obvious that he wanted to leave the room quickly. He left within a few minutes of entering the room. I was baffled with his behavior. I did not think he even had any good suggestions for me. He is by far the worse medical professional that I have met. I would not recommend him to anyone. read more

Dr. Lee is great! He is highly skilled, very professional, and yet also very personable. He is attentive to his patients, and helped me with my questions and concerns and overall well-being. My back surgery was successful, and his care helped me make the progress which I needed. He is honest and forthright as well as compassionate and supportive. I am so glad that I found Dr. Lee! read more

It is unfortunate that there is not an oversight committee regarding the mental health of certain doctors. This man needs intense therapy. He is a caustic and horrifyingly, self-centered person, no where near what one would expect from a professional doctor. This person, calling himself a doctor, SERIOUSLY NEEDS VERY INTENSE PSYCHIATRIC HELP. Having been a patient of dozens of specialists in this field, my time with Lee was the most useless and wasted of all, bar none. He is condescending, disrespectful and extremely rude and certainly one of the most un-kind of individuals I have ever encountered in my life! His behavior is that of a socio-path, who has been given a license, because he studied and took tests, but has no interest whatsoever in the patient, the patient's feelings, the patient's condition, his only interest is himself and how HE feels, which makes for a waste of time for a person seeking medical solutions. And God help anyone considering going under his knife. He is an insular and frightened man, with no compassion whatsoever. Read the other reviews and you will hear the same. Save yourself the bother of seeing an insulting and very neurotic, troubled person, referring to himself and dangerously licensed as a physician. There are far too many REAL AND CARING professional doctors that you have the choice to see as opposed to putting yourself through this closed and truly pained "Drama-Queen" (hmmmm,maybe that's the problem!) anyway, this person, Lee, need I say more is a very, very disturbed man. I am unable to call him a doctor, he is too self-centered, critical, judgmental and in my opinion incredibly mentally disturbed individual to be in the league of the healthy minded individuals who choose a caring profession. Steve Lee cares for Steve Lee and his patients figure that out in time. But... Fear not, one day, someone from a disciplinary board will feign patient-hood, and observe him as he pretends to be a professional and fails the test as is sure to happen. And this person, who is called upon to over-see and really observe this very sick man "playing doctor" in action, will do for us, as the patient community, exactly what is needed and that this society does, EVEN with the learned--- they will require that he suspend his practice until he has had many, many years of intense psychotherapy. All of this is said with absolutely no resentment, if anything, there is an abundance of pity for troubled Steve Lee, and for anyone unfortunate enough to think they are his patient. read more