Dr. Makoto Ogihara, MD

COMPLETE LIAR!!!! VERY POOR AFTERCARE!!!! Surgery wound got infected couple of weeks later in the inside, went to him for severe pain, he said it was normal. Went to him again couple of days later for severe pain, finally he put a drain in and there was A LOT of pus that came out. WHY COULDNT HE DO IT IN THE FIRST PLACE AND WHY IS IT INFECTED THIS MUCH!!!! if you want to live, stay away.

Dr. Ogihara is a very caring and always took great care of my mom no matter what time we call or the hospital calls him for whenever mom was taken to the ER. He always took time to come and explain to me what he did and what I need to do to take care of mom when she comes home. I think that's very outstanding coming from a very busy doctor like him.

I was having gallbladder attacks for years and was always told it was acid reflux, I had an ultrasound done and found that I had gallstones and my gallbladder had to be removed to prevent me from getting anymore attacks. Dr. Ogihara had come to the room and introduced himself and said he would do the surgery that night, I told him I would wait because I didn’t know if my insurance would cover. A couple of days later I got another attack, Dr. Ogihara was contacted and was willing to do the surgery the next morning. The surgery went very well, he came to see me the next morning and explained everything about the surgery and what he did. I was pleased with Dr.Ogihara and recommend him for any surgery that you need to be done.

I went to the ER with terrible stomach pain. I had an acute appendicitis and needed emergency surgery. Dr. Ogihara was the surgeon on duty. He assured me that he would be able to remove it laparoscopically and I would be up and around in no time. I had to wait over 5 hours for the surgery. When he tried to get the appendix laparoscopically, he found that my colon where the appendix attaches was very inflamed. He ended up cutting me open from my belly button down about 4 inches and taking out 5 inches of my colon. That was bad enough. The worst was yet to come. My wound got infected and so he opened up the bottom of the surgical site to allow it to drain and packed it with gauze. I went home like that, without antibiotics. My wound infection continued and he eventually put me on some broad spectrum antibiotics, but never cultured or measured the depth of the wound. We continued to pack the wound with gauze at home, with very little improvement. After a month, I was… desperate. He didn’t have any answers, yet didn’t seem to think I needed to see a wound care specialist. He was talking about reopening my wound and putting in a wound vac. I went to see another surgeon who measured my wound, started packing it with a material that promotes healing, referred me to infectious disease. I was put on targeted antibiotics and finally things began to improve. Why was none of this done before?!? Dr. Ogihara may be a competent surgeon, but he has very poor aftercare. He seems to drag his feet on wound care and isn’t proactive.

Everything he had told us was incorrect. Very unreliable. Very slow response. Not aggressive with the after care. Complete liar. Please chose another surgeon, it will save your life. STAY AWAY!!!

Had two surgeries - the first one he added extra stitches to the mesh for the hernia. The first time the other doctors repair failed. It hurt like he did extra stitches too. But hey now i Fell confident it wont break. Also did a Gal bladder with no problems

I was in Hawaii for work when I began having horrible belly pains. I went to Hawaii Medical Center at 8am. I was diagnosed with an UNRUPTURED appendicitis around 1230pm. I was told it would be a little while before they could get me into surgery, however, I sat and waited and waited and waited. In the mean time, my appendix ruptured. at 8pm, which is 12 hours after being admitted, I finally get wheeled off to surgery. Ogihara attempted to remove my appendix laproscopically, but since it had ruptured while I was waiting, he ended up making an incision about 4 inches long down from my belly button. Even though I was infected, no drain was put it...I was just sewn completely shut. I stayed in the hospital 4 days and each day, I noticed my incision area getting a little red around it. No one paid any attention to it. I was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday and Thursday night I had white, smelly fluid leaking from my incision. I called the surgical hotline and they made an… appointment for me at 8am the next morning. I woke up at 3am from so much fluid running out and it smelling so incredibly bad. I went straight to the emergency room where they drained it and gave me a prescription. At my appointment the following morning, they reopened my incision with no novacaine at first. I was severely infected. Since I was flying home that day, they drained as much as they could and packed me with a medicated gauze. Numerous doctors have told me that if Ogihara had put a drain in me, that I could've avoided all the infection. This infection caused me to have emergency surgery 2 weeks later due to 2 golf ball sized abscesses attached to my bowel and bladder. One of the abscesses still had part of my appendix in it. I spent 12 days in the hospital for this surgery. I also had to have a wound vacuum for 3 and a half weeks and then secondary wound surgery to close the wound. Then all of these surgeries left my abdomen so damaged, that I had cosmetic surgery to correct that. So, a simple drain could have saved me a lot of time off from work, lots of pain, depression, and a whole lot of money.

Dr. Ogihara is very knowledgable and kind. He is a highly recommended surgeon who is bilingual in Japanese/English.