Brian W. Su, MD, Spine Surgeon

UPDATED REVIEW: Gave me back my life… TWICE! I am and will remain eternally thankful that I found Dr Su to help put me back together again… TWICE. Had horrific back pain as reported in my earlier review. Finally decided to do the L5/​S1 fusion surgery. Was scared as hell, but it was the only option I had left. It worked perfectly and I was out of pain for about 18 months. Could walk/​hike long distances again etc.
Then I stupidly went to a personal trainer at a gym who claimed to be trained in working with post back surgery patients. Lesson learned: do not believe trainers. They are not doctors or even licensed therapist. Needless to say, through a series of bad stretch exercises, I successfully herniated the L4/​L5 disc above and had to have a second fusion surgery in November of 2015. Luckily, Dr Su was able to put Humpty together again! NOW, here I am in June 2016, I am totally pain free. I walked 7 miles this morning. This guy is one very amazing doctor. His nurse assistant (Meghan) is also terrific. Very knowledgeable, quick to respond and can handle so many questions etc. with charm and compassion. This is true of Nurse Allison as well. Even the X-​ray tech is quick and kind. I love the fact that they have xray and mri on site so you can get the imaging and have the results to the dr so quickly.
BUT, just so that you know I am not a shill for the practice, here are my gripes. Top of the list: the appointment staff/​front desk staff should all be replaced with people who are quick, efficient and compassionate. These people have forgotten to enter appointments and then won’t bend over backwards to work you in. In person, they are charm-​less. They just throw the paperwork at you… tell you to fill it out and come back when you are done. No smiles, no thank you’s, no make yourself comfortable in the waiting area, no «you can get some water over there if you need it.» They all should work at the DMV rather than at a doctors’ office where most of the patients are in excruciating pain!
Last gripe has to do with the pain med nurse Lisa. This has NOTHING to do with her herself. She is VERY nice, VERY compassionate and VERY knowledgeable. But she is like impossible to get into see. She is so booked up that you can wait a long time for an appointment. I think that is pretty unacceptable when it comes to pain management. (And, honestly, when you are in pain, your time perception is whacked anyway. Every day feels like 20!)
I know that Nurse Lisa does not work everyday. I am not asking her to change her work/​life schedule for me! but I sure wish the practice had two pain nurses so that the wait would not be as long.
To this same point, there is seemingly no scheduling coordination between her appointment schedule and Dr Su’s schedule. So, you can wait to get an appointment to see Dr Su only to find out you need pain help from Nurse Lisa, but then the next time you can see her is in another two weeks. For my money, that is crazy. In fact, I don’t know if Dr Su and Nurse Lisa are ever in on the same day! Bottom line: they need another pain management nurse to handle all the workload for Nurse Lisa and to free up more appointment spaces. To repeat: this is NOT about her. She is TERRIFIC, it is about scheduling.
Bottom line: all of the professional staff are over-​the-​top AMAZING professionals. You could not find better people if you tried. BUT, The appointment/​front desk staff needs to be replaced or seriously trained in people/​patient skills. Or send them packing to go work at one of the evil-​empire health insurance companies.

I was crippled in a fall & the pain was Horrific!
Dr Su put a cage & screws in to remove the blown disk & save its space.
I can touch my toes, Dance & play with my grandkids! I have my life back– Pain Free! God Bless you Dr Su! :)
So if your body needs a great neurosurgeon — Call Dr Brian Su!
And his smile is awesome!

I was referred to Dr. Brian Su stemming from a back injury I got back in January. Although my pain had resided I still had drop foot, which is a big concern for someone in their mid-​40s. I could tell from the reviews online, and after meeting with him, this guy really knows what he’s doing. He tried everything to fix my drop foot to avoid surgery, which was a reassuring as many physicians, I believe, push for surgery without exhausting all other options first. Unfortunately, surgery was required to give me the best chance to fix my drop foot, so he performed a lumbar discectomy between my fourth and fifth vertebrae.
Dr. Su did a great job explaining the whole process, the possible risks of such a surgery and the probability of a full recovery. I particularly liked that he didn’t set my expectation too high; it’s always better to end up with a better outcome than expected. He accommodated me into his very busy schedule and was always immediately available to answer my questions. His staff, and everything I mentioned above, made the whole process much less stressful.
Everyone I talked to had positive things to say about Dr. Sue, and I wholeheartedly agree with all of of them. If you have a back problem or spinal injury, I highly recommend going to see Dr. Su… and he’s a great guy too!
Thank you Dr. Su.

I was beyond impressed with the care received from Dr. Brian Su. In past years I had been going to San Francisco to seek help with my back. No reason to cross the bridge when we are so fortunate to have a doctor in our midst who possesses an outstanding educational background and in depth training at the finest hospitals in the country/​Dr. Su is very friendly and puts his patients at ease. I feel that his judgement is spot on and I feel extremely confident to be in his care.

I met with 3 of the best spine surgeons in the bay area before choosing Dr Su to have my spine surgery. Dr Su was by far the best. He took his time to connect with me and I felt his care and empathy. That goes a long way to making me feel comfortable having surgery and having it with him. He patiently explained what he thought was causing my pain and encouraged me to do other tests — a nerve conduction study and a pelvic MRI — to rule out all other possible other causes of pain before considering having surgery. I appreciated his conservative approach. He tried to do everything else possible before considering surgery. In the end, I’m choosing to have the surgery. I haven’t had surgery yet, it’s still a few months away, but after 9 months of meetings with Dr. Su and lots of deliberation, I can say that I trust him and have confidence that he’ll do an excellent job. I thought the entire Mt Tam Orthopedics staff has been great. Kate, Dr Su’s nurse has been wonderfully helpful moving this process along with insurance and scheduling.

I was put in contact indecently with Dr. Su, during an attempt to secure care for a major health concern regarding a spinal surgery I had undergone. I had been misinformed and brushed aside for months from various other medical offices, but Dr. Su made sure to do everything in his power to help me. I can’t tell you how refreshing that was to me. Thank you sir! I wanted to make this review as a testament to how truly grateful I feel. I am a grown man and his direct and caring attention made me break down into tears; after all I have been through, I never could have imagined a better experience. The medical field can be very complicated, but Dr. Su and his team put me at ease, and took care of me. I cannot say it enough. Thank you.

Dr. Su is very professional, courteous and thorough. His staff were all friendly as well. I finally got some answers and good advice for targeted treatment of cervical spine pain that became much worse following an auto accident. My only complaint is that it took a long time to get in… but I guess that’s a good sign.

Dr. Brian Su is a fantastic and innovative surgeon. I’m glad I found him.
As a tall, avid runner, I stepped into his office with a borderline L5-​S1 disc issue about two years ago that was nagging me throughout my life and was aggravated by heavy lifting. I tried just about everything — I mean everything! — outside of surgery to remedy my issue.
Dr. Su made it clear what surgery could do for me, and the possible risks every step of the way. I had A/​PLIF surgery in 2014 and subsequent hardware removal in 2015, which was rare for spinal fusion cases. Despite the intense pain management I had to go through for the past year or so, his team was patient and compassionate, and responded quickly to my requests. This superb staff (Kate, Lisa, and others) were able to navigate the toughest parts of our modern regulatory medical environment with grace, humor, and efficiency.
Today, only four months out from my hardware removal, I am now returning to a running routine, slowly and gradually, with an emphasis on strength and flexibility work. Honestly, I never thought I would be able to become this active without pain again given the challenges of back surgery. I am immensely grateful to this staff (and the many others I encountered along the way) who listened to my story and acted when I needed it the most.

Dr Su is a caring doctor and did an amazing job fixing my dads spinal stenosis. It was a very complicated and difficult surgery.

I saw Dr Su twice. First for an evaluation. He ordered a new MRI. I have a bad neck and shoulder. Lots of migraines/​headaches. Nerve pain down left arm. Previously dislocated shoulder with impingement issues. Mild/​moderate cervical cord compression, disc degeneration, bone spurs and bulging discs.
Dr. Su said he believed I had TOS (thoracic outlet syndrome. I had been going round and round with more local Drs and each referred my pain to the other body part. The cervical orthopedic Drs said it was my shoulder, the shoulder Dr said it was my neck causing the pain. The sports injury specialist said basically I didn’t have anything that should be causing the amount of pain I was reporting. I never asked for narcotics as I didn’t want to take that route. Dr Su was thorough and truly listened, referring me to a TOS specialist and the diagnosis was confirmed. I am ever so grateful as I was losing faith in the medical community to help me. Now I can move forward. THANK YOU Dr. Su

There is seldom a doctor who is first just a man and then a doctor. Dr Su is humble, knowledgeable and caring. He takes his time with me each time I see him and I can tell he is actually concerned for my needs and feelings. I’m not saying he continues to think about me or my «issues» after leaving the room (I’m quite sure he has plenty better things to do), but while he’s with you he really is there with you. The reception folks are only ever indifferent at best, however.
You rock Dr Su!

Dr. Su recently did 2 very complicated back surgeries on my husband. The surgeries went very well and my husband is doing so much better then he was prior to the surgery. I think Dr. Su is a brilliant surgeon and would highly recommend him to anyone. Especially someone currently living with daily back pain, like my husband was. Dr. Su was great through the whole process. He patiently answered all my questions and was always available when needed during my husband’s hospitalization. He is very pleasant and really cares about doing a great job for his patients. Dr. Su and his staff are highly professional, and very organized. His office also sent flowers to my husband in the hospital which was such a nice surprise for my husband. I can’t say enough great things about Dr. Su and his staff and assistants!

So, I write a lot of review for a lot of different places. One thing that I hardly write reviews about are for people in the medical space, but after having so many wonderful things happen to me after seeing Dr. Su, it’s time that I write my first medical Unilocal review for him.
A little over two years ago, I walked in to Dr. Su’s office a pretty broken and unhappy person. I had sciatica beyond all belief, and knew that I it was because I had pretty bad L5/​S1 disc herniation. I had two cortisone injections, developed alopecia areata from all the mental and physical stress, months of physical therapy, and after all that, and 8 months later, I wasn’t any better. As a 20-​something year old athlete, having back problems truly frightened me, but having back surgery was even scarier. After talking to Dr. Su about all my physical pain, he started asking about my mental pains. I was completely blown away by how much he cared about how I was faring mentally and that it was important that I assess my mental stress as part of my injury. Ultimately, he determined that I was a candidate for a microdiscectomy and within two months I had scheduled my procedure.
Leading up to my surgery, I had a few follow ups, and like everyone has mentioned, Dr. Su gave me his email and his cell phone in the event I had any questions. The surgery went very well, and Dr. Su made sure he talked with my husband in terms of how things went while I was recovering. Within a few days, I was walking, and within 6 weeks, I ran on the treadmill for the first time in almost a year. Fast forward two years later, I am a stronger and healthier athlete, and have surpassed all my pre-​surgery personal records, and am absolutely a much more mentally stronger person. It took a long time to get here, but I am absolutely certain that none of it would have been possible if it weren’t for Dr. Su. Back surgery changed my life in a number of ways, both for good and bad, but I am entirely grateful for Dr. Su for giving me a lot of my life back. I’ve sent a number of my colleagues and friends to him since he’s the only person I trust when it comes to sports-​related back injuries.

Dr. Brian W. Su is an excellent doctor and surgeon. He performed an anterior cervical spine surgery with bone graft, distraction, and fusion at C3-​C4 on me earlier this year, and just did a 6.5 hour anterior and posterior lower spine procedure that was much more complicated and involved several different procedures. Dr. Su is quick to pull in other top surgeons to assist him, as he did for my 6.5 hour procedure, when he was assisted by Dr. Beyers, also of Mt. Tam Ortho, and Dr. Pak, one of the top Bay Area vascular surgeons.
He listens to his patients, takes into consideration their concerns (my husband also had Dr. Su surgically remove a cyst from his back), fully articulates the pros and cons of various alternatives, and guides patients through a course of less invasive and more conservative procedures before going to surgery.
In the case of my cervical spine surgery, it provided me with relief for migraines that had plagued me almost 85% of the time for many years. Dr. Su was the only doctor of many neurologist, pain specialists, and other physicians who looked at all of my records and examined me who figured out that the narrowing at C3-​C4 was at the root of my migraine pain.
Contrary to many of the comments regarding the front dest staff, nurses, and office staff, I have found everyone at Mt. Tam Ortho to be professional, kind, and helpful. I have been going there for well over a decade and I can attest to the marked improvement in service and attitude over the past four or so years.
I highly recommend Dr. Su, Mt. Tam Ortho, and the related facilities to anyone in need of the services provided by the group. They are top-​level professionals in their fields and you will not be sorry.

If you need your faith and trust in the medical profession renewed, please see Dr. Su. I recently have experienced the nightmare that is our modern medical system, and Dr. Su heard that I was upset and spent his Sunday calling myself, and surgeons in the field that I was interviewing in. The end result of him spending his Sunday taking care of my issue is that I now have a surgical appointment a full 2 months sooner, and an appointment with my pain management provider a month before I was able to make one on my own.
This may be the type of care some people get from their doctors, but I have never gotten this level of care with any of mine. Especially when you consider that Dr. Su stands to gain nothing directly from helping me. He recommended that I get hip replacement and felt that the pain in my lumbar might diminish greatly if I had that done. Thus basically rendering his services unnecessary.
So, not only did he spend about 1.5 with me during my consult with him, but even after he determined that I basically may not need his services; he spent a Sunday making me feel happy and secure with my medical care again.
I am still astonished and feel beyond blessed that I even found him!

I am so happy there is an Internet format /​place like Unilocal where I can voice my opinion /​concerns, both positive and or negative about a person, place or business:
Recently I had lower back (spine /​disk) surgery. My surgeon was Brian W. Su, M.D. and I just can’t say enough good things about his skills and professionalism, let alone his caring bed-​side manner. I highly recommend Dr. Su (5 Stars) if you need a spine Surgeon.
But I also want to compliment his wonderful Staff. From the front office counter, to his immediate appointment nurses, to his Assistant — Kate Kennedy. In a time after surgery when myself or family had question (s), they all helped as if I was their family. During office visits & or telephone calls, I was treated in a both friendly as well as professional manner. Over the years I have had many medical problems /​surgeries, Dr. Su’s Medical Office Team is also 5 Stars in this Unilocal review.

I wholeheartedly recommend Dr. Su — I had been having recurring lower back pain for quite some time and thought surgery might be necessary, but Dr. Su made sure we systematically exhausted all the other options before seriously considering surgery. And when the pain got particularly bad, I was even able to get in touch with him over the weekend for help. Ultimately, with his guidance and advice, we were able to find a way to manage and then eliminate the pain without surgery (the best case scenario!). Dr. Su is a true professional who has the best interests of his patients top of mind — it’s not often you find a surgeon who really considers surgery as the last resort!

I really wanted to only give this doctors office a one star! Dr. Brian Su was great!
His receptionists on the other hand suck! Rude, disrespectful, and they plain out lie …
When I went there the first time I was told about the procedure I was going to have a… I was little confused I didn’t quite understand it. Lauren and Kelly ganged up on me in one of the rooms… I had been off work for over a month and I needed the disability papers filled out! They plain out refused to do so! So I decided On getting a second opinion of which I did. Apparently that pissed off Lauren… And she copped a huge attitude!
I’m not one to usually complain, but that woman, those women made me suffer a lot longer than I needed to!!!

Friday Feb. 7, 2014 Dr. Brian Su fused my neck c-​4 /​c-​5 level. Though I am in a neck collar, I have no pain, and my anticipated sore throat is almost gone. I was terrified prior to surgery, having had a terrible hospital experience the year before. He listened and dealt with my anxiety. He had the anesthesiologist call me at home to review my allergy’s to anesthesia and pain meds. I had no problems with what they chose to get the job done. They were a great team and took great care of me. I can’t thank Dr Su and his staff and colleagues enough! And a big shout out to the staff at Marin General!!! The staff at the hospital worked like a well oiled machine. The pride and care they gave each patient was nothing short of excellence. I’m home and truly feel great!
Thank you. Nixon Chavez

I have had debilitating pain from my spine for more than 10 years and I finally came to the realization that I needed surgery.
Luckily, I found Dr. Su through a good friend who currently works in the operating room with multiple ortho and neuro spine surgeons in the bay area. He told me to go to Dr. Su for my surgery because «I would trust any friend or family member with him». I also consulted with two other very well known and experienced surgeons (one neuro and one ortho) in SF. After very careful consideration, I felt Dr. Su was the most knowledgeable and understanding of my situation.
As a younger person (35 yo) I was anxious to even begin to think about having spine surgery. Since I have Degenerative Disc Disease in my lower lumbar and developed a large disc herniation at my L4/​5, other surgeons had told me that my condition was a fusion case (very invasive surgery requiring permanent implants). I found Dr. Su was much more aware of my specific needs and gave me confidence that he could help with a much less invasive procedure combined with a specific protocol of rest and PT. With that, I chose Dr. Su to perform my Microdiscectomy surgery.
Surgery went flawlessly. After surgery, Dr. Su was totally accessible through his personal cell phone and email which made this whole experience comforting. His staff at Mt. Tam Othro were also extremely helpful and provided me with multiple requests via phone and email. I am now back to work and feeling like a new person. I would highly recommend him to anyone that needs spine surgery.
If Joe B did his research, he would have found out that Dr. Su trained with orthopedic and neurosurgeons at one of the best fellowships in the country. I am not sure what Joe B. is talking about but Dr. Su is as well trained as it gets. Marin is lucky to have him and I am forever grateful.