Can anyone recommend a neurosurgeon in LA? I have read that UCLA is ranked best, but I’d appreciate hearing anyone’s personal experience there or with other hospitals and doctors in the city. Thanks,
P
Good morning. My 17 year old son had a craniotomy done and successful and complete temoval.ofnhis avm done at Scripps in San Diego with Dr. Sanchez who is absolutely incredible. We did receive a second opinion from UCLA but I don’t remember his name. He was young and Asian. He seemed good. I cannot say enough about Dr. Sanchez, who has trained under the best, and if you are willing to go to San Diego, I’d say he is the best. He saved my son’s life and gave him his future back.
Thanks so much for letting me know. I looked him up and can see his background looks great for AVM (for other readers: Harvard Med School, Residency UCSF, Fellowship Mass Gen Endovascular Neurosurgery). I wish Scripps wasn’t so far away. I may see if I can get an opinion from him even if I decide to have it done closer to home.
Wonderful to hear about your son! Thanks for staying on the forum and sharing.
1 Like
No problem! I know how scary it all is. My son luckily didn’t have a bleed, it was found by chance. It was in his right upper front part , but not sure if it was the frontal lobe. It was in the SMA section ( supplementary motor area). He had a choice of gamma knife radiation or a craniotomy. With the gamma knife, it can take three to five years and it isn’t guaranteed to go away. Dr. Sanchez felt the craniotomy could be completely successful but left the decision up to us. He respected what we thought and did not push us either way. I would definitely take your MRI MRA or cerebral angiogram results to him for a second opinion. If you need anything let me know I wish you the best!
I would strongly encourage you to travel up to Santa Barbara for Doctor Alois Zauner. He’s one of the best neurosurgeons specializing in AVMs, and he did a tremendous job on mine. I recovered with no deficits.
Thank you! I’ll look him up. Good to hear about your recovery.
Dr. Anthony Wong at UCLA was fabulous for my son.
My son is 16-years old and had a brain bleed in May, 2017, which is how we discovered his cerebellar AVM. He had surgery with Dr. Wong at UCLA in June and is doing extremely well. I would say 99 percent of “normal” with only minor motor and balance issues.