Dr. Norman Kenneth Poppen, MD

My surgery was 21 years ago and my shoulder is going strong.

He is a no-nonsense physician. He is the greatest ortho surgeon I have ever met. He performed six highly successful surgical procedures on me. I am sorry he chose to close his practice..

I have been to Dr. Poppen for three separate issues, and all were handled competently and professionally, beyond my expectations. I was referred to him for follow-up on finger surgery done at Curtis National Hand Center outside Washington, DC. The expertise and treatment by Dr. Poppen exceeded that received at Curtis. I later saw Dr. Poppen for numbness and tingling in one hand, which he diagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome. Unlike previous experiences with other doctors, I found Dr. Poppen's exam to be the most thorough I have ever experienced with a doctor. he explained the options for treatment thoroughly and provided me with written material on my condition. He recommended the most conservative treatment, steroid injection into the wrist, along with consistent use of a wrist brace, and gave me accurate statistics on the success of the treatment. I was very fortunate to, by following all the instructions and with good luck, have success with the injection and avoid surgery :-) When… I had my most recent injury, a popping sound with shoulder pain, my family doctor started me with physical therapy, which I completed. The pain returned, and so did i, to Dr. Poppen. Dr. Poppen provided an incredibly comprehensive exam lasting over an hour (of examination by the doctor - not waiting!), and tets, which confirmed a badly torn rotator cuff and labrum. When surgery was performed, he meticulously repaired these. The surgery took longer than expected, but it was because of damage that was even worse than indicated on the film, but carefully repaired. I will say that Dr. Poppen's post-surgical care was very conservative, but after following it to the letter, I have completely recovered from my injuries and regained full range of motion and strength. Dr. Poppen can be funny, but also brusque at times. Most important to me, however, was the fact that he was highly competent. I checked out his background before going to him, his board certifications, experience at Hospital for Special Surgery in NY, and his being a Fellow, I prefer competence to conversationalism, but also appreciated his dry humor. Dr. Poppen and his staff are the best!

I probably would not recommend Dr Poppen based on my experience. I had shoulder surgery, and didn't get much relief from my pain. Also surgery took several hours instead of the 2-3 that he quoted which cost me several thousand more dollars in co-pays. Don't expect any bedside manner, but his office staff was friendly and helpful.

dr poppen is the best surgeon he is the only dr.to take his time and look at my arm to see what it will take to fix it unlike the other dr's he did not just take all of 5 or 10 mins.to check me out it was 2hrs&30mins then the mri then we seat down for 1hr&30mins to go over the mri no other dr. did that at best 10mins. and thay were all wrong too thay all did miss about 70% of what had to be done to me if you need a dr. this is the guy to see no b/s note if the dr. you go to is only takeing 5 or 10 mins. to check you out then he is not the dr.you whant to help you if you have 20 mri photos and he only looks at 1 to 3 of them run

This so called doctor operated on me when he was a surgeon at David Grant Air Force Hospital (you wont find that in his resume)He is very arrogant and could care less about the patient. I am crippled for life, I was a boy when he operated on me.Stay far away from him, you've been warned.

I loved the treatment I recieved from Dr Poppen and his staff. He is a bit rough around the edges but he helped me out alot.....I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!