Gordon Tang, MD – East Bay Neurosurgery & Spine

First, Doctor Tang communicates extremely well. He is very clear and concise and thoroughly explains his findings and his suggestions for treatment. That is not my normal experience with medical specialists, so his communication skills really stood out!
Second, at least for me, he was a terrific surgeon. He preformed surgery on my neck and everything went fine. There was a remarkably short recovery time, and the results were expected. (The surgery was done to correct numbness in my hand.)
Third, follow up care with his physician assistant was also excellent.
Finally, I’ve known one other person who utilized Dr. Tang for some serious spinal surgery, and that person was also very happy and recommending of Dr. Tangs’ services.

Based on an accident I had ~4 years ago (fell down a stairway) I had a badly herniated L5/​S1 pressing into sciatic nerve. It took me a long time to decide to eventually have surgery… was definitely the last option. I had tried everything else in between: physical therapy, acupuncture/​herbs, steroid injections (2).
Pain became pretty unbearable over the last month which lead to my decision to have surgery.
Having the operation was a really a game changer. It is pretty miraculous how much less pain I have felt since then.
Dr. Tang came recommended from my primary physician. I called his office to set up a consult and they said I needed a recent MRI (helps them prioritize their schedule). He was very responsive once I had had it done…(called me the same the day and gave me an appt the next day). They are good at triage.
I was scheduled for surgery within 10 days (mainly an insurance issue)
I did not interview other surgeons. Was happy with his track record, demeanor, and obvious knowledge of what to do…
I would recommend him unconditionally

I am eternally grateful that my boyfriend was able to avoid Dr. Tang for removing his meningioma.
His office must have some sort of referral program worked out with local hospitals, because he was the only neurologist the doctor we were assigned would recommend, BUT he is not the only neurologist in the Bay Area, and according to other reviews, far from the best.
After our initial appointment with him, it was clear that he was not the right person for the job. He is unprofessional, not compassionate and gave us completely different information than the neurologist that we ended up going with (who did an amazing job — recovery time was 3 weeks vs. Dr. Tang’s estimated 3 months).
I can’t stress enough — do your own research, talk to people who’ve been through similar experiences, and don’t rush to choose a provider.

I was referred by my physiatrist to see Dr. Tang to assess/​evaluate my neck pain. He was very thorough during the initial appointment, and spent appropriate time to help me understand the issues, including reviewing the MRI images together. He recommended further evaluation & testing; and the hardest part was obtaining the next set of test results. I was having back-&-forth phone calls with him, and messages were not passed on from the front desk to his attention. When I called back for follow up, the staff insisted that he had called me back because the progress notes indicated that he did; but in fact, I did not. After 2 months of this, I’m just now back on track to get to the next step.

I was referred to Dr. Tang for removal of a meningioma, a benign tumor on the outside of the brain. My initial consultation with him was not at all informative or pleasant — he provided almost no information, even though I had carefully prepared the critical questions I needed to ask him. However, I went ahead with the scheduled surgery (after all, he’s a brain surgeon, to quote various jokes). The expectation was that this surgery would have little or no effect on my mental functioning. However, after the surgery, I was told that the imaging studies were flawed, and that the tumor actually penetrated somewhat into my brain. The recovery from the surgery was long and painful, and I was left with permanent cognitive damage that forced me to stop working as a systems developer — my problems with memory made it impossible to continue this work. NOT ONCE while I was in the hospital recuperating did he come by to speak to me, even though I made it clear to everyone that I really wanted to see him. I strongly believe he has an irrationally high opinion of himself and his abilities, while at the same time being totally incapable of effective communication with his patients. More precisely, I don’t believe he CARES about his patients at all; his only interests are in the technical details of his surgical specialty. I regret allowing him to perform surgery on me more than I regret anything else in my life. I would strongly recommend finding any other neurosurgeon; you can’t find worse than Dr. Tang.

Gordon Tang was the neurosurgeon who performed my brain biopsy. I was falling down prior to the biopsy and no one could figure out why. I was referred to Gordon Tang who was very brusque during our initial meeting, which should have been my first clue. Before the biopsy I was limping, when he was done with me after taking 19 samples of my brain I not only couldn’t walk but couldn’t even sit up. While I was in the rehab center Tang called me to ask what my final diagnosis was. When I told him what the doctors had told me, which was that I had a blot clot that caused my brain bleed and then disappeared he proceeded to tell me (a patient in rehab and not my physician) that there was something there in my brain and whatever it was it was progressive! Needless to say that threw me over the top. I never heard from him again and to this day he has no idea how much money has been spent on the seven years of rehab that it’s taken me just to get to the point where I use a walker and a cane part time. Every doctor I’ve met from the Alta Bates system that has asked me about Gordon Tang has rolled their eyes at the mention of his name. The topper was when someone who worked in his office showed up at my house for dinner. When they asked why I was using a cane and I told them about Gordon Tang they told me that they worked in his office. Suffice to say that they, like several other people in the Alta Bates system had nothing nice to say about the man. I wish I had never met him and that I had gone with my gut feeling and never let him cut into my brain. My advice– find a neurosurgeon with a bedside manner instead of a heavy dose of arrogance. I’m not sure why they even let him continue to practice. MANY people including both physical and occupational therapists have asked me repeatedly why I didn’t sue. Considering my condition at the time I don’t think I could have dealt with the stress of it. My advice save yourself the heartache and find someone else!

This is probably the most important review I have ever written. There is so much at stake when you find yourself in need of a neurosurgeon. The vast amount of complexities and the life changing decisions are nothing to be taken lightly. The bay area is filled with a lot of great medical practitioners. The process of choosing the right one is daunting to say the least and we want one who is the best is his/​her field. I found myself with a bulging disc at c4 c5, a herniated disc at c6 c7 and osteophytes in the same areas that were crushing my radial nerve. I felt like a dump truck had driven onto my arm and was crushing it and then someone doused it in gasoline and lit it on fire. This is putting it lightly. The pain was indescribable and from one week to the next my life had been altered forever. I researched neurosurgeons long and hard and came up with two choices and Dr. Gordon Tang was one of them. His approach is to be as least invasive as possible, unlike other neurosurgeons who are ready to pour a bag of bolts in your neck. Dr. Tang is thorough and honest. He spends the necessary time explaining exactly what the issues are and the various options. In my case he managed to save me from the continuing damage that was occurring to my radial nerve which at some point may have left me with little use of my hand. In addition he and his staff worked quickly to get me an operation date quickly so that the continuing damage would be halted. This was critical as each day my nerve was getting closer to being at a point of no return.Dr. Tang performed a forminatomy on me. He treats you as if he were treating himself and his outlook is optimistic and reasonable. There is no ego with this doctor. In addition he has a very congenial and accommodating staff. Dr. Tang has my highest of recommendations — I researched his background extensively and he without a doubt one of the top neurosurgeons Northern California has to offer. His hands and knowledge has changed my life for the better… he is a good man and a great surgeon.

Dr. Gordon Tang’s office is located behind alta bates summit medical center (berkeley). my doc referred me to Dr. Tang. after she reviewed my mri negatives and worried about a possible slipped discs and/​or blood clot. (the examing doc was too busy to schedule me in).
i contacted dr. tang’s office and got a late january appointment, needless to say, i was deflated and disappointed. i was surprised when dr. tang’s office called a few days later and offered an appointment within a few days. YES!
off street parking was a little hard to find. i found out later they have limited parking benealth the builiding if you park in the correct designated parking area. if you don’t, you get towed. the waiver you sign in the office informs you of this.
in the office, i was given a lengthy medical questionanaire to fill out, covering theoretically my entire medical history. within 15 minutes of my appointmet time, i saw dr. tang. he asked me some very detailed medical questions and performed some physical tests on my arms and legs.
he produced the films from mcmi, explained what everything was. and told me his prognosis: a bone outgrowth that was intruding into my spinal column or fluid channel or something like that. hs said a simple day in and out surgery would take care ot it.
dr. tang needed to consult with my doc to confirm that no other problems were found .
a few days later, dr. tang’s office called to inform me i needed to return to my urologist for some testing to verify the need for spinal surgery.
observations: (uncrediential)
–dr. tang’s office is on top of every issue, medical, personal, etc.
–no detail is left to chance.
–very adequate explanation and planning.
–i’m in good hands with dr. tang.

After several months of awful back pain and two fruitless cortisone shots, my ortho finally sent me to Dr. Tang. He was very thorough, compassionate, and knowledgable. He took the time to look at my films with us and explain what’s going on, which my ortho never did. He really listened to my symptoms, which I was grateful for. He came up with a plan, and I’m optimistic that I’ll find some relief with a non-​surgical approach. If that doesn’t work, I would totally trust him to be my surgeon.
He’s definitely not chatty, but is very professional and treats the patient as a participant in his/​her care. Highly recommended.