Dr. Byers has been my spine doctor for 20 years. Having injuries in both my cervical and lumbar spine, he managed to help keep me out of surgery for decades, always supporting my desire to keep working, raising my kids, etc. and living as normally as possible. He got to know me and understand me, and he promoted physical therapy, exercise, massage, good health and minimal medication to support my goals. He did not want to do surgery until I determined it was time--that the pain was impacting my life too much to continue living in the way I wanted. That day came and I had a 3 level anterior cervical fusion in 2017 and an anterior/posterior lumbar fusion in 2018. Dr. Byers and his nurses, MRI team, billing and office staff, x-ray techs and physical therapy group have given me a pain-free life! They are beyond amazing, attending to every detail--including insurance, state disability, and all the follow-ups for meds, any questions I had and my additional physical therapy needs. I was shaking in pain trying to take a shower in January of 2018. In January of 2019 I am climbing mountains! I cannot recommend Dr. Byers highly enough. I give him and his team the highest praise for their stellar care and genuine effort to improve my life. I will be forever grateful to CA Orthopedics. read more

I'm sad to hear Dr Byers retired. After 20+ years having him help me. I'm stumped. No notice sent. Calling up to make an appt I'm told he's no longer there. Now what? He's the best Dr I've had. read more

Not only did I have 2 very pleasant experiences with Dr Byers, but as a surgeon, he recommended a non surgical treatment for my injury that was extremely effective and resulted in a quick recovery. In doing this Dr Byers lost me as a patient, but it showed me what an honest, knowledgeable and professional Dr he truly is. I highly recommend Dr Byers read more

For the last few years I suffered with a herniated disc in my back that slowly began to cripple me and make it impossible for me to live life on my terms. Depressed and unable to run, swim and have a normal day to day, I decided to do something about my back issues. I saw a few surgeons but I did not feel very comfortable with the doctors I saw in San Francisco proper. One doctor I felt was a good match and I even scheduled a surgery with him but days before I was scheduled to go "under the knife" he dropped my insurance without notifying me. I called a week before surgery to make sure everything was in order and that's how I found out I wasn't going to be covered....awesome, right? So I'm back where I started. A co-worker suggested I go see "his guy" in Marin County. The thought of leaving the city to go see a surgeon in Marin was unappealing to me but without any other real options, I gave it a go. I'm glad a did. I met with Dr. Byers and immediately took to his optimistic, yet cautious approach. He worked especially hard to get all of my MRI's cleared through insurance when he absolutely didn't have the time to do so. With the insurance headaches, it was great to have someone really fight for me. I was able to get scheduled for a surgery and felt very comfortable with the process and recovery. They don't surprise you here. The whole team at Mt. Tam is very knowledgeable, caring and most importantly, are on top of things. I never felt like I was doing this alone, which is a huge "win" for me. I always felt like I had someone to call with questions, etc. It was a reassuring factor that I was going with the right facility. 6 months after surgery, I'm back to running, swimming and living life on my terms. I've been set up with great physical therapy sessions, followup doctor visits and feel like I have my life back. I can't thank Dr. Byers and team (Susan) enough... Recommended to the highest degree. read more

The short version: I suffered 6 years of excruciating lower back pain due to degenerative disk disease, did every non surgical alternative available, and eventually saw four of the world's top surgeons in different countries for 2nd/3rd/4th opinions who each gave conflicting recommendations of complex procedures with long recovery times. I then met Dr Byers who recommended a much simpler solution and with over 2,000 operations under his belt, I selected Dr Byers and his experienced team. I have had literally zero pain ever since! My wife says I instantly lost "that pained expression" and my kids say they have their fun-loving Daddy back. Thank you Dr Byers, you're a miracle worker! The details: For six years I lived in crippling pain due to degenerative disc disease, experiencing shooting pains at L5-S1 with every single movement of my body, every single day of my life, relying on mouthfulls of stomach-rotting painkillers to be able to make it through the day. At 45 years old I was effectively crippled for life by pain. To find a solution I did over a year of due diligence, paying for the professional opinions of four of the World's top spinal surgeons, including the Queen's own surgeon in Harley Street London. While they all agreed on the problem, they said they could not guarantee to take away my pain "because MRIs don't show pain". They recommended conflicting solutions, all of them surgical, all of them pretty radical and all with long recovery periods. One said do a multi-level PLIF from behind. Another said don't even consider a PLIF and instead insert an artificial disc via my abdomen to preserve range of motion. Yet another said stay away from artificial discs at all costs as they're too new and may need to be removed 10-15 years from now. Enter Dr Byers, who had been recommended to me by multiple people at my church based on their own successful outcomes. Dr Byers initially suggested various non-surgical alternatives, which I exhausted without gaining lasting relief. He said he would operate on me if he could be as certain as possible it would help me, so he sent me for a diagnostic test injection which temporarily numbed L5/S1 and allowed me to move around like a young man, pain free for 60 minutes before the pain returned. This conclusively diagnosed the problem and Dr Byers agreed to operate. He said he would perform a relatively straightforward operation that would fuse my L5/S1 segment, be minimally invasive, and have a rapid recovery period as he'd go in through a small insision in my abdominal region avoiding unnecessary damage to any of my back muscles. He explained everything in a way I could understand and was very patient with my endless questions. An almost guaranteed outcome, a straightforward operation, a rapid recovery, all clearly spelled out -- what's not to like!? This sounded almost too good to be true, so I did some research and discovered Dr Byers has done over 200 operations per year, for 20+ years. He often takes on cases that others would find too tough and is also called upon to fix other surgeons' work. I realised that having performed 4,000 operations, he knew what he was talking about, and had the experience to cope with whatever may happen once in the operating theatre, having pretty much 'seen it all'. I'm glad to report that the operation was a complete success. It was over before I knew it. I recovered rapidly and I have not felt even the slightest amount of back pain ever since. To say that Dr Byers completely changed my life would be the understatement of the century! It's worth mentioning here that for spinal surgery to be successful you must rely on a host of people in addition to the surgeon. The nurses who work with the surgeon, the people who coordinate the various medical teams, calendars and expenses, the operating theatre staff, the hospital nurses (who were fantastic at Marin General), the physical therapy staff, etc. Because he is one of the top surgeons in the world, Dr Byers has hand picked his extended team and it shows. They are all incredibly caring, knowledgeable, willing to help at any time, and most of all tremendously experienced and great at what they do. Every surgeon wishes they had a team like this. I want to specifically recognise Dr Byers' nurses at Mt Tam Orthopedics, Alison and Sara, who helped me whenever I needed it, often squeezing me in at short notice. And Whitney for coordinating all of the medical teams so efficiently so I could focus on being the patient. In summary I'll just say this -- having traveled the world to find the absolute best spine surgeon available, I can categorically state that I found him: Dr Robert H. Byers. read more

This Doctors is absolutely the best in his field and a superior human being in general! I would not let anyone else do surgery on me that did not have the same heartfelt empathy for my situation and came up with a true solution to my back problem caused by a car accident in December of 2013. I would give him 100 stars to him and his staff (Susan and Alison) if I could. He is simply amazing!!!!!!!!! read more

Dr. Byers is nothing less than a miracle worker. I woke up one morning and without notice had a paralyzed left arm. After consulting with a few doctors and receiving some treatments and surgery that just did not work, I sought out Dr. Byers. With his kind style, he reviewed my MRI and accurately diagnosed the problem and then went into detail on his recommended surgery treatment of disk replacement and fusion for my neck, which was pinching my nerves and cutting off function to my arm. Dr. Byers conducted the surgery which was as smooth and as easy as possible. He came by my room at 6:30 the following morning to check on me and I said 'Hey Doc look' and lifted up my arm which I could not do for more than a year -- the paralysis was gone . Great surgical success. Since that time, the nerves in my arm have had continuous healing with a corresponding continuous improvement in my arm function and movement. I am well on my way to 100% recovery of my arm function as I continue my physical therapy. Nerves heal slowly so I am on a journey, but one that is always improving. And I have no side effects like reduced movement or rotation of my neck. I really am becoming as I was before. Spine repair is part science and part art. Dr. Byers excels at both. And he is a delightful person to work with. If you want the best go see Dr. Byers at Mt. Tam Spine in Larkspur, CA. read more

Are you kidding me!? Terrible patient service, waste of time and effort. I am a former patient of Byers who recently suffered another back injury. I called Byers to make an appointment and schedule an MRI (which he certainly was going to order given the length of time that had passed since my last procedure, get prescriptions, etc.) and ended up leaving a message. Absolutely no response at all. Left not one, but TWO more messages. No response in over two weeks - I ended up going to a different doctor (not in that practice). This is actually the second time I've tried to make an appointment - the first time was over a year ago and the exact same thing happened. A patient is in extreme pain and wants to make an appointment and can't get a call back? Absolutely ridiculous. Don't waste your time - there are other doctors in the area. Don't put up with the indifferent attitude of the staff. They should be ashamed. read more

I have been a patient of Dr. Byers for years treating me for issues with my upper and lower spine. He always prescribed alternatives to surgery leaving it as a last resort. I am 65 and have been in Construction most of my adult life which takes a toll on ones body. Last year I blew out a disk working in the garden which put me in instant severe pain pinching a nerve. I was hospitalized and Dr. Byers went into action. He explained the results of the MRI clearly to me and said surgery was necessary. The operation was a total success and I am very grateful to him for doing such a good job. My entire experience with Dr. Byers and his staff has been wonderful. I feel like a VIP when I walk in and get treated very professionally and personally. Dr. Byers and I have become friends and chat about what's going on in each others lives. He is a 10 in my book. read more

Dr Byers is wonderful. He took a lot of time to explain all the X-rays, MRI and CT scan results, answered all of our questions, offered explanations, and was patient, caring and professional. Since my husbands case is complicated, he ordered even more tests to try to get to the bottom of the problem before jumping into surgery. I was very impressed by the professionalism, friendliness and helpfulness of the entire staff. It is really great to have a doctor who is so comforting when dealing with a very scary situation. Not all surgeons are like this, and we feel very lucky to have found Dr Byers. read more

I feel limited only being able to leave a 5 star review. My husband ended up having surgery. Dr. Byers visited him every morning at the hospital including Saturday and Sunday! The surgery showed immediate results and we feel so blessed to have such a wonderful Doctor. read more

Gotta give Doc Byers 5 stars. I went there with back pain and extreme Sciatica. He encouraged me to try non surgical treatments first, which I did, which didn't help. So, onto surgery to treat a herniated disc between L4 and L5. Surgery went well, so well in fact that I ignored instructions and got way too active just 3 weeks after surgery. Sciatica returned with a vengeance, so Doctor Byer ordered up another MRI. Disc had re-herniated much worse than the first time. So Doctor Byer went in and did a second surgery, and this time seems to of worked. This whole time, a period of about 9 months, Doctor Byer was very understanding, caring, and obviously sympathetic to my pain and worry. After surgery he even gave me his cell number and told me to call any time, which I did on a Sunday after feeling some bad pains in my back and leg. He ordered up a third MRI at my request which showed no re-herniation, I just need time and patience to heal up. I highly recommend this Doctor. He is great and highly skilled in my opinion. read more

Dr. Byers is amazing. These one star reviews are horrible as they are not about Dr. Byers who is an amazing doctor with the best bedside manner you will ever have from a super busy surgeon. He is so caring and so informative - he spends as much time as he needs to with you so you completely understand and are comfortable with everything. If you are in pain he truly wants to find a solution that will get you better forever! I had two herniated disc surgeries and then Dr. Byers did a spinal fusion for me and I'm like back to normal as if I never even had a problem. I was literally bed ridden and crying from the pain the would shoot down my leg pretty much constantly and now I'm back to completely normal life with ZERO pain. I can't say enough about how wonderfully spectacular he is ....and special shout out to his amazing nurses - Susan and Allison and scheduler Lyla! read more

2 weeks of trying to make an appointment but the scheduler says she hasn't received a referral from my physician who has sent it twice and the referral is on the Meritage website. I checked their fax number and she gave me another which my doctor's office said didn't work. The scheduler couldn't be bothered to check the Meritage website-they are a member-and actually laughed as she told me to go back to my doctor. Really empathic! The last 3 calls have gone to voicemail. Meanwhile my back is killing me. Hopeless. read more

Five stars for Dr. Robert Byers and his exceptional staff!! I am a 67 year old guy who has had the great good fortune of two extremely successful spine surgeries by Dr. Robert Byers. In 2006, I was enjoying an active Marin County life, running the Dipsea Trail, playing squash at the Bay Club, swimming in the bay, when I blew out a lumbar disk during a particularly spirited squash match with a hyper-competitive cardiologist. I worked my way through the medical referral chain and eventually reached Dr. Byers, who thoroughly reviewed my MRI, calmly and clearly reviewed the options, and we agreed on a microdiskectomy to remove a large piece of disk that had broken off and landed on a lumbar nerve. The surgery was completely successful, immediate pain relief, I was doing laps around the hospital corridors with my IV contraption four hours after the surgery, and went home the next day, but not before Dr. Byers explained to me that the MRI showed that I had other extruded disks, and that if I resumed strenuous physical activity, I needed to make a determined effort to build up my core strength to withstand the maximum stress associated with the activity to protect my back. I took that sound advice to heart. Fast forward seven years to 2013, seven very active years, enjoying life with zero back pain. The day of reckoning came in April 2013 during a particularly spirited squash match, when I lit something up new in the lumbar area. I worked my way through the medical system to another consult with Dr. Byers, who thoroughly reviewed my new MRI, attempted various non-surgical treatments, and eventually performed fusion surgery, using an innovative procedure that he developed with his colleague Dr. Su, which reduced the time on the operating table by 50%. Just as in 2006, this surgery was completely successful, immediate pain relief, I was doing laps around the hospital corridor four hours after the operation, and now, nine month after, I'm totally pain-free, running the Dipsea, swimming in the bay, but have hung up my squash racquet, based on Dr. Byers' very thorough and thoughtful post-operative risk assessment. I have to award an additional round of five stars to Dr. Byers' dedicated, efficient, professional and helpful staff, Alison and Susan the nurses, and Lila the scheduler. All are patient-oriented, supportive, sympathetic, and most importantly, responsive to any problems that arise. I've seen a number of Yelp reviews of Mt. Tam Ortho and Spine Center commenting that the receptionist ladies are sometimes rude and unhelpful. Prospective patients -- please don't hold the receptionist issue against Dr. Byers and his excellent staff who are going to do everything they can to deliver you from the land of misery back into the land of normalcy. And don't just take my word for this - Dr. Byers conducts follow-up surveys, and more than 90% of his surgical patients report that if they had to do it over again, they would do the surgery. read more

I am so impressed with Dr Byers. I have had chronic right sided sciatica and back pain for years, but this time things were different; I had numbness and tingling, and some bowel and bladder changes. My insurance had denied an MRI. DR Byers pushed for me to get one that day. As soon as he got the results, he called me at 9.30 pm after being in the OR all day. He informed me I had a herniated disc at L5 S1, S2 with potential risk for Cauda Equina syndrome. He called me every other day to check on my symptoms and gave me his personal cell phone in case I had progression of symptoms.He put me on steroids, and scheduled me for surgery the following week. Prior to surgery, he sat down with my husband and I and explained in detail what my problem was, and what to expect, and showed me my MRI. He was thorough, kind, and compassionate and very focused. I felt very reassured prior to surgery when he came in to check on me. He was also there every single morning during my hospitalization, making sure that I was OK, and changing meds around to prevent too many side effects. I am an RN, and he respected my suggestions as well. I am 2 1/2 weeks post op - I have to limit what I do - I have a slight recurrence of the sciatic pain, but I think this is because the nerve was so damaged from years of pressure. Most importantly Dr Byers is a remarkable efficient, professional, who is compassionate smart, and kind, and has a great bedside manner. His team of Nurses - Susan and his scheduler - Whitney were also great. I hope this is the last of my back problems.. I feel very grateful and blessed indeed to have Dr Byers and his team on my side. I should add - he operated on my son 6 years ago after a freak accident in Lisbon - and also did an amazing job. Thank you Dr Byers. read more

I suggest not wasting your time at this spine center. I went to them in March in real pain and have had no relief from the four shots except the shots made my pain and symptoms escalate. I found out I have a spur that is creating intense pain in my hip knee leg and foot , plus some other L4 L5 disks herniated. They love steroid shots even if they do little to help you. The Docs pass you on to Lisa, she is nice enough but very, very scattered, over worked and in a real high frequency frenzy that is a bit unsettling especially while on is in pain. Lisa told me how well I looked which has nothing to do with my pain I am in I, then she told me the same story on two different occasions of how Dr Byers may not always agree to do surgery like on a former patient who has Parkinson's. But I do not have Parkinson's so why this story twice? She also said to feel free to go elsewhere I have great insurance I can go anywhere so I will, since they don't have the confidence to fix me. She offers me a brain drug for pain because it works on some and that was a surprise to the drug makes. Lisa says she will call you back and maybe her assistant assistant will after you call a few times wondering what you are to do? For sure there is no relief there. MY husband went there a few years ago and found the same to be true, only giving him shots until he could not walk any longer, then he then went to ST Francis and had surgery where they fixed him, Amazingly well with surgery he is a new man! I wish he could have save the years he spent on taking shots and had it fixed in the first place. They make a lot on the on the shots about 2500 an injection. If they worked it would be great. For me limping around in pain is not a life anyone wants to lead and my quality of life is poor and restrictive and aging me in a way it isn't called for in this day and age. I suggest Sutter Dr Andrew or St Francis. read more

My husband had back surgery April of 2015. Dr. Byers was the surgeon who did wonders on his back. It is better than it has been since high school and we are in our 60s now. He is now pain free. Dr. Byers follows up on his patients after surgery, takes his time with his patients and explains everything to the patient and the family. My husband had 2 discs fused together and a bone spur was removed. In the follow up visits we could see all the progress throughout the year on the Xrays, and of coarse my husband is pain free and moving around effortlessly. I have a hard time keeping up with him now. Thank you Dr. Byers. read more

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND DR. ROBERT BYERS for anyone with spine issues who may end up needing surgery. I interviewed a number of spine surgeons in Marin and San Francisco after an injury that affected my spine. Most were cold and distant and did not leave me wanting to put my life in their hands. When I met Dr. Byers I was so relieved to finally find an experienced competent spine surgeon who was also warm and friendly-with a sense of humor! He always took the time to patiently answer my questions and explain things to me thoroughly and in a way I could understand. And not only was l well-cared for before and during my operation, after my surgery Dr. Byers was the first person I saw when I opened my eyes in the hospital. He made sure I was comfortable and had everything I needed, and he made himself available 24 hours around the clock. My surgery was a success for which I will always be grateful. If you want an expert spine surgeon who is also a deeply caring human being, Dr. Byers is your man. read more