Orthopaedic Group of San Francisco

I have Spinal Stenosis and I need to get another steroid injection in my lower lumbar spine. I had one last year. My primary care Dr. (John Nienow) referred me to John O Missirian, MD to look at the new MRI I had done to compare it with the one I had last year. I had an appointment with Dr. Missirian on September 16, 2014. He never looked at the MRI that I had given to the front desk until I asked him to. I asked him what he thought and he said I was getting old. He also said he did not see much of a difference between the MRI from this year and the one from last year. When I asked him why I was in so much pain he said he did not know. Last year when I had my injection the doctor that performed the procedure showed me the MRI and said he could clearly see that many of my discs were in bad shape causing the pain. The discs had protruded out grabbed onto a nerve and the disc was pushing the nerve directly into my spinal cord. He told me it would get worse not better and that after another injection the one I am due now, the next step was surgery. Dr. Missirian told his front desk staff to make the arrangements for me to have the injection. I was told by the nurse that she would set it up and call me. I called on 9÷19÷14 and was told they were working on it and they would call me back. I then called on 9÷22÷14, 9÷23÷14, 9÷24÷14, 9÷25÷14, and finally again on 9÷26÷14. Each time I was told they were working on it but they could not find a doctor or hospital who took Brown and Towland. I called Brown and Towland and was told that California Pacific @ 45 Castro Street had no problem with doing it and they had staff to do it. I could find a place but the doctor could not find one. In short they never even tried. I now have to be re-​scheduled with another doctor to get the referral. It is now 9÷29÷14. I do not see my primary care for the new referral until October 6^th, 2014. I spent 10 minutes with Dr. Missirian and he clearly had no clue. Lord knows how much he will charge the insurance company for the visit but he did nothing. If you are smart you will stay away from Dr. Missirian.

I saw Dr. Missirian regarding some lingering pain I was having on the outside of my hip. After a perfunctory physical examination, Dr. Missirian informed me this had nothing to do with my hip, at all, because «if it had to do with [my] hip I would feel it in my inner thigh,» then sent me on my way with a generic book of basic low-​back exercises.
After a few weeks of doing the exercises, I didn’t feel any improvement. I made an appointment with an extremely reputable UCSF orthopaedic surgeon, who actually ordered some X-​rays. Turns out I have hip dysplasia, and will need to have fairly major surgery to correc this congenital structural defect.
Thank goodness I sought out another opinion. I thought it was strange that Dr. Missirian wouldn’t even want to order X-​rays. His misdiagnosis doesn’t make any real difference in terms of my treatment, however I think it was a mark of really poor training and skills. I would absolutely not recommend anyone see this doctor, as I do not feel he is qualified or thorough enough to make an accurate diagnosis after the experience I had.
Also, an cursory Internet search will show that hip injuries can manifest in pain on the outer OR inner thigh, as well as the buttocks and even down the length of the leg. It’s never a good sign when a Dr. doesn’t have as good a grasp on his specialty as the Internet.