Dr. Raymond F. Sekula, MD

In April 2024, Dr. Sekula performed a microvascular decompression (MVD) surgery on hemifacial spasm that I lived with for 7 years. It's now been a year since surgery. The process from initial consult, pre-op testing including MRI, and surgery was less than 2 months. His office staff helped with insurance approvals and all paperwork to ensure a seamless process which was helpful since I was coming from out of state. Dr. Sekula's expertise and confidence to alleviate fears of surgery was remarkable. The surgery was a total success, I woke up spasm free and have not had any recurring symptoms over the last year. The recovery was mild and speedy, surgery scar was barely noticeable. I am so grateful to him and staff for giving my quality of life back. HFS is an awful condition that drains you completely. He provided a video of the surgery so I can watch post surgery and his follow ups post surgery are greatly appreciated. You need to talk to Dr. Sekula if you suffer from HFS, he… is a God sent life saver and I am thankful everyday!

I would give him zero stars if possible. He has ruined my receiving timely care in the Pittsburgh region for a life-threatening, skull-based tumor and tainted the entire UPMC hospital system with a recommendation that wasn't based on facts but instead his being unprepared for our initial consultation and then trying to cover it up. He was hours late, I had to repeatedly call to check on his status, his staff forgot my appointment, he showed up in the telehealth visit looking unkempt, tired, agitated and clearly didn't even know my case when he failed to initially realize or later fully recognize that I've been having symptoms related to mass effect and trigeminal nerve involvement. He then contradicted his own statements about when they recommend microsurgery and refused to refer me to any other surgeons and only would recommend gamma knife after rudely telling me that he didn't let patients dictate his treatment recommendations, after he was caught being unprepared, and rudely ended… the call with an ultimatum about my letting him know about his decision after only talking for approximately 8 minutes of the 30-minute appointment time. What is sickening is I wasn't even able to get a proper emergency room evaluation at two UPMC hospitals for new and worsening symptoms because of him making it seem like I have enough and my condition isn't as bad as it actually is. I've had symptoms that could be from the tumor standalone or from a combination of it and other chronic, some rare, conditions, which could be impacting the nerves and blood vessels. But, I was told point blankly at two hospitals, one of which was Presby, that I wasn't able to get further evaluation for possible TIAs, blood clots, precursor to an aneurysm, all of which could be possible at this point, or even further evaluation of the trigeminal involvement with my tumor because of him. Two experts before him claimed I have a solid mass tumor. He tried to claim it was cystic. A neurologist, see below, tried to claim it is both solid and cystic, which would actually further support the need for microsurgery instead of gamma knife -- not that Sekula would even listen to why I don't want gamma knife. He didn't care that two experts didn't recommend it because of past scans, high risk for cancer based on family history, further damage to my brain, high risk of the tumor causing more damage to my brain stem during initial swelling or the potential for it to suddenly grow rapidly from that exposure... he only cared about covering up his lack of preparedness and knowledge related to my case. An insurer tried to schedule an appointment with a neurologist that accepts the UPMC insurance outside of the hospital, but it turned out that the neurologist is a colleague. Two-thirds of that appointment was this neurologist, Kasdan, making excuses for Sekula's negligence and telling me he wasn't making excuses and then talking about the benefits of gamma knife and trying to get me to agree to see Sekula's gamma knife recommended physician, Lunsford. As others have written on Google and various review sites, Kasdan lies about a patient's symptoms, overall health, conditions, etc. in his notes. He did so with me. He lied about how I was symptom-wise at the appointment and even the mass effect of the tumor, which is shown clearly on the MRI and noted by past radiologists in the follow-up notes. He lied about me supposedly smiling when I left, which I wasn't at all. He did admit that he refused to even talk with me about the other conditions and refused to believe that I have all three forms of bilateral thoracic outlet syndrome diagnosed at Johns Hopkins and confirmed via several tests including color Doppler, that could be impacting the same nerves as the tumor. I shouldn't be surprised that they're, according to Kasdan and his PA, close colleagues who send cases to one another and talk on the phone sometimes. Sekula has similarly lied and his lies have delayed my treatment and critical care. I don't care how skilled this surgeon apparently is in an operating room, he should have his license revoked.

I traveled from Massachusetts as Dr Sekula's surgical approach offered a much briefer surgery and recovery time than was available locally. All went exactly according to plan- I woke up spasm free and my recovery was as he predicted. He is an excellent surgeon and I found him to be compassionate and respectful. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him for treatment of this problem.

He's the best hands down!!!

I feel like this man has two different bedside manners, or maybe I got him on a bad day... but he completely wasted my time. Spent an hour in the room waiting only to see him for maybe 5 minutes. He was no help at all and left me with no advice. Still in pain, and now I have to find someone else.

Read old chart info but didn’t ask me about current health condition. Assumed to know what was wrong and never asked. Suggested a course of action that was not related to current health problems. Spent almost no time with him. Then when I tried to do a follow up appt was passed off to an assistant who never passed info to the Dr. then they called and told me they would not see me and to find another doctor.

Wonderful person, amazing doctor!!!

I first met Dr. Sekula when my husband and I went back to support my daughter and son-in-law through his macro decompression surgery to treat his very painful trigeminal Neuralgia. We met Dr. Sekula who was very gracious and informative about the surgery. He answered all of our many questions andmade us all feel very comfortable. More importantly, the surgery was a complete success and Roy has had NO PAIN since the day of his surgery and was released from the hospital the next day. Three years later I was diagnosed with the same disorder. The pain was "over the top" and when it reached the point of really limiting my life style, I called Dr. Sekula's office and asked to be scheduled for surgery. I was scheduled for the following week, flew back to Pittsburg from California, had the surgery, woke up to absolutely no pain and have never experienced any pain since. My surgery was Nov.2, 2015 and I now celebrate it as my second birthday. Dr. Sekula worked a miracle in my life and… I thank God every day for physicians such as him. Additionally, he found that I have an aneurism which Stanford Hospital totally missed in my MRI. Thank you, thank you, Dr. Sekula

Such a committed neurosurgeon and great bedside manner. He and his team are very detail oriented.

I was diagnosed with atypical trigeminal neuralgia and was two weeks away from having Microvascular Decompression Surgery with another doctor at AGH. Through much research, Dr. Sekula was discovered. My family and I traveled to Hamot UMPC to meet with him for a second opinion. At Hamot, I received a MRI that specifically targeted the nerves on the left side of my jaw. When we met with Dr. Sekula, he said that I was not a candidate for MVD surgery and that it might make my condition worse to have the surgery. This appointment was bittersweet for me. I was hoping that I would be out of pain soon with the surgery, but I am grateful that Dr. Sekula took the time to investigate whether I was a good candidate or not. Type 2 trigeminal neuralgia is rare (constant chronic pain); the research my family under covered suggested that MVD surgery only has a 50/50 chance of success. After Dr. Sekula examined my MRI, he saved me from having brain surgery that would not have been successful. He made… suggestions to help me cope with the pain. I am hoping that with time they work.