I need help finding a good orthopedic doctor for a shoulder injury. My wife has been complaining about her shoulder since she injured it last September. I am pretty sure she has a torn rotator cup. Here in the last few weeks she has been unable to lift anything with that arm. She scared of getting some incompetent doctor that screws her shoulder up for life. If anyone knows of a good doctor from personal experience can you please forward their name. Thanks!
When I was having back problems I sent an email out at work and overwhelmingly people said Raleigh Ortho. They have a Garner office as well as the others. I didn't end up going, but only because my back got better. Others may have more personal experience with them.
I am seeing Dr Alieto at Clayton Medical Associates (Duke Med Ctr on Hwy 70 East) He is a very good Orthopedic suregon. Highly reccommend.
Do not use Dr. ... DO NOT GO TO Dr Alioto in Clayton or Smithfield. I had a frozen shoulder and had surgery last November to correct it. First of all he never even spoke to me on the day of surgery…I have never had a doctor do this before, they always pop in and speak to you before anesthesia and usually see you afterwards, but not him… he was too busy. On the day of surgery the instructions that he verbally gave my husband were different than what was written on the discharge instructions so we called his office the next day to get clarity on this and the receptionist told us to follow the discharge instructions (like she had the knowledge to make this call). I went to every physical therapy and did everything and my shoulder is back just like it was. He said he was going to need to do surgery again when I say him in January. I DON'T THINK SO! His mistakes 1. The followup appointment was 3 weeks from surgery date and 2. Physical therapy did not start until after this 3 weeks. By this time my arm was already freezing up again. If anyone does surgery on my shoulder again it WILL NOT BE DR. ALIOTO. He also talks derogatory to his nurses and once at an appointment he came in to see me chewing food. Very very unprofessional. And yes, I have let them know how I feel. By the way, I have had a frozen shoulder on my right side about 10 years ago so I knew about what to expect so we asked questions to try to get into therapy or to try to get it out of the sling earlier. When I have surgery again, it will not be with Dr. Alioto.
I had an encapsulated shoulder last year which is one step before a frozen shoulder. I saw Dr. Wyker at Raleigh Ortho. He was very good and sent me for physical therapy. After a few months of therapy I was fine. I cannot vouch for his surgical skills personally, since I was able to avoid surgery, but I had others recommend him as a surgeon as well.
My wife cringes at the thought of Alioto. She was having trouble with her right shoulder several years ago. We visited a number of docs (ortho and neuro) and Alioto was one of those visited. She had trouble raising her arms and he suggested several things, one just happened to be the remote possibility of a tumor. Neither of us really worried about that that much. Soon after, her left shoulder begin giving her problems with intense pain. Her right shoulder had done the same prior. I called him and he suggested it was in her head!!!!! I really could not believe what I was hearing. Needless to say, he was unable to recognize that it was a neurological problem she was having and to refer her to a competent neurologist. He also put her arm in a sling when it shouldn't have been. On the flip side, even though he was totally off base on the diagnosis, he did get her into PT, prescribed her with a sleep aid and helped her get a TENS unit through the PT. So kudos for that, at least. I wouldn't go back to him, however. There's really only one doctor that I would tell all to seriously STAY AWAY from and that is a general surgeon (not an orthopedic) in Raleigh. He was prepping to take my wife's gallbladder out and it was healthy. Thankfully, I found out what kind of history he had BEFORE the next morning's surgery. I'd advise anyone to check a doc's creditials with the NC Medical Board before considing them. Go online to www.ncmedboard.org and you'll find out if they've been disciplined or not.
Did your wife go to the dr yet? Just thought I'd mention that it seems to be pretty common for women to experience shoulder pain. I have had it, my sister and about 4 of my friends. I went to 2 different orthopaedists and they had me do PT which didn't help, got 2 cortizone shots which helped for awhile, had x-rays, an MRI etc. THis went on for a couple of yrs but continued to get worse. The only diagnosis I got was "impingement of the shoulder" and the only thing that helped was going to the chiropractor and getting messages. I think that my shoulder and the muscles were so inflamed that until I got all that tension out of the muscles and they got stretched back out - that that what was causing the intense pain. And it was VERY painful - could hardly move my arm in any direction or sleep on that side etc without intense pain. Try googling impingement of the shoulder. Good luck to her, I hope she can find some relief!
