Duke Spine Center - Clinic 1B/1C — Attraction in Durham

I've been a patient at Duke Spine Center since Jan. 2019. Everyone I've encountered ... the Parking Ambassadors, Patient Registration Attendants, Nursing Staff and Doctors...has been friendly and helpful. I came across Neurosurgeon, Dr. Isaac Karikari's profile video after deciding to get a second opinion on my recurrent back problems.  After my very first meeting with him, I was sure I was in the right place. Dr. Karikari explained exactly what would take place before, during and after surgery. My biggest apprehension for another surgery was the potential for post-operative infection. After my second back surgery with my previous surgeon, I developed surgical site infection which was a horrifying experience. Dr. Karikari was compassionate, understood my anxiety, and was proactive in making sure there was no recurrence of surgical site infection. It's been six weeks since my surgery with Dr. Karikari. He performed Ext of fusion L2/3, L3, 4, TLIF.  Today I can honestly say that I haven't felt this good in years. Dr. Isaac Karikari, a brilliant, empathetic, and highly skilled neurosurgeon, has truly been God-sent and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him to anyone.  He's an asset to Duke University Medical Center and I'm blessed that his gifted hands restored my life. Thank you,...

Dr.Abd El Barr told me I'm so heavy that I'd break the hardware used to fix my back. That I need to talk to a behavioral health therapist to learn to cope with being in pain. That I'm too young for surgery even though he did it for my younger brother. He also said that he needs more tests and scans even though he has multiple results that clearly show/state all of the findings. Asked if I'm diabetic just because I'm heavy. Refuses to listen to me and what I don't want. Makes me feel like dirt every time I go and as if I caused my own back problems and choose to stay miserable. Told me they "could just do nothing" when I voiced my concerns with the anti-inflammatory he wanted to use because of allergies and my kidney issues. Never returns calls or answers the phone unless I call repeatedly. No compassion or sympathy. Told me they were gonna do an si joint injection and injected a different area. Told me he "doesn't have a magic bullet" to fix my issues. 3 YEARS WASTED AND NOW MY BACK IS WORSE!!! I would have put 0 stars if I could have! WORST SPINE...

No continuity of care. Had been seeing an NP here for almost a year and thought she was great. She then abruptly left the practice. No one was notified of the change, her patients were not reassigned to another physician. I found out when I called to make another appt and they told me it would be a few months to get in since I was a new pt appt now. They set me up with the wrong subspecialty twice so now 5 months later I’m still trying to get set up with an ortho spine doc that I can be f/u with long term. The first dr I saw that was the wrong subspecialty wrote a note on my chart specifically stating what type of doc I needed to see and the scheduler still put me again with the wrong subspecialty dr that stated I was inappropriate for their practice and was confused why the scheduler put me with them. I asked the scheduler at the time to check and make sure it was the right doc three...