Hello Clam,

Welcome to the forum.

Where does he practice medicine? Need that info to do a bit of checking.

In the meantime, call your local hospitals and find out what kind of back surgery he performs and how many he has done. Where did he go to med school. Where did he do his residencey?, etc., etc. AND especially talk with others locally and see if they have had him as a surgeon, results, thoughts, etc.

RichT

P.S. - Could you tell us what your medical situation is? Thanks

Rich,
I have a 2mm herniation at L4-L5 and 1.5mm-2.0mm herniation at L5-S1. I've been in pain for about 7 years now. I've tried PT, DRX9000, 2 Epidural injections and etc and nothing has helped yet. Dr Watkins Sr is a surgeon located in Marina Del Rey in California. He has performed minimally invasive spine surgery on many professional athletes. I would like to know if anyone on this forum has gotten their spine surgery done by him and how it went. Thanks!

Also, my physical therapist told me that since my injury was so long ago, there might nerve damage and if that's the case, even if I get surgery, the pain might not go away. Is that true?

Hello Clam,

Thanks for the added into. Sorry to read about the nasty two disc herniations.

Not to jump to conclusions, however, your statement - "He has performed minimally invasive spine surgery on many professional athletes." definitely caught my eye. First the "minimually invasive spine surgery", and then "on many professional athletes".

Just my viewpoint, but when a spine surgeon is known for performing "minimally invasive spine surgey" I take notice. Far better when that is an option rather than the traditional "rods and screws" in my opinion.

Professional sports organizations have huge sums of money invested in their players. They can ill afford some "not so good" doc. When I had a rotator cuff tear I wasn't getting anywhere with my GP doc. So it was time to look for a really good doc specializing in shoulder injuries. No sweat, I just called the Redskins football office and asked if they could recommend a really good shoulder doc. They never hesitated for a second and gave me the name of Dr. T who worked on their players. WOW, he was fantastic. I wanted surgery to get it over with, and he said, "Slow down lets try a corticosteroid injection and PT first. Man was he smooth with that injection, I never even felt it. AND you better believe it worked.

Of course I can't speak for the merits of Dr. Watkins, sr., BUT ------

Continue to do your research.

I hope you get some personal experience from others on this forum regarding Dr. Watkins.

May all go well for you.

RichT

Dr. Watkins performed 2 surgeries on my back. Unfortunately I was not a candidate for a (at that time a new technique still in clinical trials)disc replacement so I had to have the old type of surgery. That was in 1997. This was unsuccessful, lasting only three years. This was because the bone grafts did not hold, probably a result of having breast Cancer and its chemotherapy. Anyway, I had to again have surgery in 2000 both front and back. Before doing surgery I had every test known then to be sure that surgery was the right thing and the only thing that he could do, to get rid of the excrutiating pain. This time he did both the front and back using cadaver bone. It took. Dr, Watkins is the only surgeon I would have operate on my back, he is kind caring, and thorough. By the way, the second time was the that worked!
Wendy Hollis

Dr Robt Watkins,is the best spine surgeon I know of. He was the Orthopaedic Dr. for the Dodgers, and Lakers sports team, but most of all he takes great care with his everyday patients I've had several Cervicle spine surgeries done by him and 1 low back surgery, and am a lot better off because of him. Dr Robt Watkins is world renouned. The one thing is is that he's very busy, so if you get an appointment, take a book to read while waiting, and then, sometimes you'll be surprised and he'll take right away. He's worth the wait.

I'm not sure any more what surgeries he does as he now has his son in with him and I believe another Dr. He used to schedule surgeries every Tues and Thurs--he's done thousands. He practiced with the Kerlan-Jobe Group, then went to USC where he was also a professor.

I highly recommed him.

Ann