Dr. Hongo is an outstanding cardiologist who combines deep clinical knowledge with genuine…read morecompassion. He is incredibly thorough and professional, and I've seen his excellence firsthand through the care he provided my mother during her pacemaker replacement. As an OR nurse, I hold my colleagues to a very high standard, and I can say with confidence that his skill set and bedside manner are truly top-tier.

Dr. Hongo saved my life eleven years ago when he met me in the lobby of a hospital after learning…read morethat my Zeo device showed a 9 second delay in my heartbeat. He gave me a pacemaker at that time and a replacement one 10 years later. Last week I had an ablation that was very successful with Dr. Hongo. He did a lot of work inside my heart to make it right and I can think of no finer doctor, period. He is kind, patient, compassionate and has a great deal of expertise. In my opinion, you will be in very good hands with the care and treatment of Dr. Hongo.

@@My Journey With Knee Pain -- And an Unexpected Alternative to Knee Replacement…read more Good morning, everyone. I wanted to share my personal journey with knee pain and the treatments I've tried, in hopes it might help someone going through the same thing. The Beginning of My Knee Pain About 10 years ago, I began experiencing serious knee pain. I'm now 67, so it wasn't exactly a surprise, but it was still life-changing. My orthopedic surgeon diagnosed me with bone-on-bone arthritis and recommended a knee replacement. Instead, I started with cortisone injections every three months. For years, those shots worked like magic. Along with physical therapy, knee braces, topical creams, and supportive orthopedic shoes, I was able to manage the pain and live my life. When the Injections Stopped Working Unfortunately, this year everything changed. The cortisone injections only gave me mild relief, and the pain returned long before I could get the next one. I tried: * Hyaluronic acid injections - no improvement * PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injections - mild relief for about a month By June, my surgeon and I agreed it was time for knee replacement surgery. He also advised me to stop cortisone injections to reduce surgical risks. I scheduled the procedure and began preparing. A Setback I Never Expected Around this time, I joined this online knee replacement group for support -- but reading story after story of months-long pain and slow recoveries honestly scared me. Still, my pain was unbearable, so I was ready to proceed. Then, the unthinkable happened. I fell off a ladder and suffered a severe injury to my right leg -- the same one scheduled for surgery. I had an 8-inch skin tear, all the way to the bone. My surgeon immediately canceled my surgery, saying I'd need to wait at least a year for the skin to fully heal. The worst part? No more cortisone shots, ever. My skin was now too thin, and the risk was too high. My daily pain level was a 7 or 8 out of 10. I couldn't sleep, walking was torture, and my quality of life plummeted. Searching for Another Option Desperate for relief, I kept researching and came across Genicular Artery Embolization (GAE) -- a procedure that blocks inflammation by targeting the tiny arteries around the knee. I asked about it on social media, and a few people shared they had tried it years ago but only got short-term relief. However, the procedure recently received FDA approval, so I decided it was worth investigating. I contacted the San Francisco Vein and Vascular Institute, and Dr. Nathanson was incredibly helpful. After discussing my situation, he encouraged me to give it a try. The Procedure On Monday, I went in for my GAE procedure. The facility was beautiful, the staff welcoming, and the equipment state-of-the-art. The entire procedure took less than an hour. I limped in with a cane... and walked out normally just a few hours later. No sharp pain -- only a dull ache. Over the next couple of days, I experienced mild soreness when standing, but it was nothing compared to before. Today, three days after the procedure, I am 99% pain-free -- no pain medication, not even Tylenol. Looking Back What I once saw as a disaster -- my fall -- turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It forced me to seek an alternative to knee replacement, and I am so grateful I did. I know GAE may not be permanent, but it can be repeated if needed, and by then, there may be even more options available. Today, I am deeply thankful to Dr. Nathanson and the San Francisco Vein and Vascular Institute for giving me my mobility and my life back. If you're struggling with knee pain and looking for alternatives, it may be worth exploring GAE. I'll continue to update my journey in the weeks ahead. Good luck everyone.

The SF Vein and Vascular team have been excellent from start to finish. Scheduling, billing, and…read morethe care team are professional, caring, and supportive. Dr. Nathanson performed three procedures for me with great skill and an excellent bedside manner. I experienced no pain, and my recovery was almost immediate with no downtime. The Bay Area has many options for vein care, but in my opinion, this team is the best. I traveled 90 miles for my appointments, and it was well worth it. The facility is easy to find, modern, and welcoming. I highly recommend SF Vein and Vascular.

I've been a chronic pain patient for a little over 20 years. When the problem first appeared I…read moretried to work through it for nearly a year and finally had surgery to correct it, which it only partially did (no reflection on the surgeon) so I entered the world of chronic pain management. It's not a pleasant place that can also be confusing. After a number of years with different providers I was unhappy with the results. Fortunately I was referred to Dr. Robert Savala in San Francisco and his assistant Dierdre Jo about 15 years ago for interventional pain management. Within no time it was apparent that I was dealing with the right people. My chief pain complaint was lower lumbar, from L-4 to S-1, with significant and crippling bouts of sciatic nerve problems. After a thorough evaluation we agreed that Transforaminal Epidurals were the most likely procedure to yield good results for me. The decision was made after a strong collaborative approach, where he listened to me outline my complex medical history for as long as it took, and he then thoroughly outlined possible approaches and we agreed on a course of action. I'm happy to say that the results were excellent, and every time I've run up against another episode we repeat that same process as needed and keep getting good results. Finally, as for collaboration, his assistant Dierdre Jo is a huge part of the process from start to finish, getting me in to see him and then into surgery centers as quickly as possible. People typically only write reviews if they're either really pleased or really not pleased, and that's true here. Real chronic pain is bad enough to live with, I've seen and been treated by the best, and I've never met anyone I'd rather work with than Dr. Savala and Dierdre Jo.

I am a nurse and have known Dr. Savala professionally and personally for 25 years. I am now a…read morepatient and am thankful that he is my doctor. I've had long covid symptoms for 3 years and the fatigue has been debilitating at times. A friend told me about a stellate ganglion block helping someone she knew and I talked about it with Dr. Savala. We agreed it was worth trying and it has been a game changer and I feel like I have my life back.

Dr Brent is an excellent cardiologist with an AMAZING support staff…read more His attention to detail and listening skills keep my visits on point and targeted to getting appropriate tests, while his staff follows through with the process of scheduling those tests . When I had a lapse with my primary care physician who retired, it was Dr Brent who helped me get required tests for a prescheduled surgery. I would recommend him without qualification, and his staff are a model for any medical office to emulate. Lee Reynolds

Excellent care Support staff was knowable and provided the…read moreneeded information. I highly recommend the doctor.

I've been going to Dr. Nordlicht for years and he's great. Always cheerful, takes my medical…read moreconcerns seriously and I enjoy our friendly banter.

Dr. Nordlicht is so kind. He listen and cares. He also has been a md for a long time and has…read moreexcellent assessment skills. I like the location of his office across the hospital and it is easy to make an appt with him on the sutter application. He helps with referrals and other needs when asked :) highly recommend Dr nordlicht

Doctor Blumlein ended up helping me by sending me to a specialist and they were able to diagnose…read moreme. I think you really need to advocate for yourself nowadays as a woman.

Due to poor health I see a lot of doctors but Dr Blumlein is clearly the best doctor I have ever…read moreseen. He is very caring, knowledgeable and efficient. Definitely doesn't beat around the bush. His support staff is also very efficient. Recently I had to go to ER for a possible mini stroke. Upon coming home I sent him a message and I was surprised to get a phone call from him within a few minutes.

I was sent to Dr Baron from my urologist after my psa went to 1.76. He informed me that I had a…read moreGleason of 9 which is real scary because that indicates an aggressive hard to kill cancer. In 2014 I had radiation treatment for prostate cancer which drove psa down to 0.01. In 2020 my psa started to rise. I was sent to have a ct scan. The cancer was found in one of the lymph glands. I met Dr Baron who put me on a chemo drug which drove my psa back down to 0.01 in less than 2 months. I'll meet with him again in April. So far I have nothing to complain about. The man is a genius.

Dr. Baron had been treating my Mother's metastatic breast cancer for about 2 years. While he boasts…read morerespect of his colleagues, is always direct & undoubtedly has many years of experience under his sleeve, there are multiple things that I wish Dr. Baron would have done differently in the process of treating my Mother's disease. 1. Not enough time spent on the case. In the process of 2 years that we were seeing Dr. Baron, his practice apparently grew and the time and attention spent with us exponentially decreased. I have several examples of fully preventable sloppiness that significantly affected my Mother's well-being. While the waiting time for brief appointments would range from 30 min. to 1.5 hours, the time spent on our case went down to 5-10 min. 2. Treatment choices that lacked backup. Dr. Baron seems to be known for his aggressiveness in picking the treatments. With cancer, you have to. Unfortunately, the choices he made in the course of my Mother's disease were not always right, sometimes very poor. Doses that were too big for my Mother to handle, switching to a different drug while the previous one was still working gave her cancer a chance to grow. 3. Skepticism toward new developments. Dr. Baron does not believe in integrative cancer treatments or in any new developments directed at the patient's well-being; the mere mention of chemo-sensitivity testing brought a smirk onto his face. Being open-minded about complimentary ways could have helped identify the better suited treatment as well as help with the quality of life. The good: Dr. Baron is undoubtedly focused on killing as much cancer as possible. The bad: How much of the good stuff gets killed in the process is not a concern for him at this point. Note: The above is solely my personal opinion. Please do as much research as you possibly can before you pick your doctor and your treatment.

Lewis Leng's scheduling practices are a joke. I mean how do you end up canceling an appointment…read morethree times in a row last minute?? Do you know how frustrating that is to re-arrange your schedule three times to try to make one appointment? He was supposed to see my mom for a tumor. (Thankfully, it was benign, which we already knew, but protocol is to have the diagnosis confirmed by a neurosurgeon.) But our appointments were triply postponed because of so-called emergency surgeries. When we finally were able to see him, I questioned him about his scheduling, and he simply stated that it was the nature of neurosurgery. If he doesn't operate on a patient right away, "that patient will die." (His very words.) He never followed that assertion with the only statement which could possibly justify this urgency: There is a shortage of neurosurgeons (either in the Bay Area or his medical group). I pressed him again, and he never said it. So I suspected it wasn't the case. One of my best friends is also a surgeon in the Bay Area, so I'm pretty familiar with the demands on a surgeon's schedule. True he isn't a neurosurgeon, but he obviously knows those who are and the field as a whole. When I told my friend what my mom had to endure and asked him if this were typical of neurosurgery, my friend immediately answered, "He shouldn't be scheduling patients to be seen in clinic by him and being on-call in the hospital at the same time." Exactly! Just have one of your fellow neurosurgeons cover the ER, while you take care of your appointments, like other surgeons do! My friend also brought up another valid possibility. He said that since my mom wouldn't require surgery and Leng's insurance reimbursement would be minimal compared to a surgery, it's not unreasonable to believe that he was uninterested in seeing her...and that Leng "probably has his practice workflow designed to max income" to quote my friend. I was appalled by this possibility. But it makes tragic sense that this is how some doctors operate (pun unintended). And it makes total sense to me that that's likely how Lewis Leng operates. Maybe if you are "fortunate" enough to require neurosurgery, Leng will see you at your appointed time. Otherwise you are probably "out of luck." I asked to meet the manager of the department to make a complaint. To my surprise, she not only listened to my complaint, but asked if I could put it in writing because she was tired of having to deal with all the patients who had the same complaint! (And I did exactly as she suggested.) So if you have a choice, I highly recommend you seek another neurosurgeon. Even if you do need surgery, you have to wonder whose best interest would Leng have in mind. Yours...or his?

This is a long overdue review for Dr. Lewis Leng, who performed my cerebellopontine angle…read moremeningioma surgery. When I first met Dr. Leng, I was overwhelmed and anxious after discovering a brain tumor in an incredibly delicate area. right beside the nerves for hearing, balance, and facial movement. From the beginning, he explained everything clearly, answered every question, and guided me through the options with patience and respect. When the tumor grew and surgery became necessary, I felt confident I was in the best hands. During the operation, Dr. Leng worked millimeter by millimeter near critical nerves, preserving my hearing, facial function, and long-term quality of life. His skill, judgment, and care made all the difference. Today I am healing, hearing more clearly, regaining sensation, and living fully, a result I credit to his expertise and thoughtful decision-making. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Leng and recommend him with the highest appreciation and respect.