Dr. Steven Lewis Klein, MD

Dr. Klein has performed four back surgeries

Dr. Klein is one of the top Neurological Surgeons in the Greater Seattle area. The most important aspect of Dr. Klein's practice is his advice. His advice is priceless and a means to strategize an adjusted lifestyle if necessary.

Having gone through 3 previous cervical spine surgeries with Dr. Klein I returned because of severe neck and arm pain. I brought with me recent MRI on disc as well as the report. He looked at it briefly and asked me if I could return in a week so that he could have the new MRI compared to the one done a year before by a radiologist. A week later I return only to find out that the request to compare studies was never sent. He looked through the MRI quickly, looked at the x rays that had been done and proclaimed that all looked fine and he was perplexed ,as my pain symptoms did not correlate with the findings on the MRI and x-rays. I sought a second opinion. I saw a quite well known orthopedic spine surgeon who took an additional x-ray view of my cervical spine which clearly showed the plate Dr. Klein had put in was rotated and that one of the screws was extremely close to the neural foraminal area. It was also not making contact with the vertebral body. It showed one screw that… had completely backed out. The MRI showed severe disc degeneration at C4-C5 with compression on my spinal cord. When I told the physician performing the second opinion what Dr. Klein had said he just smiled and told me that my MRI was quite abnormal and showed many reasons why I would be experiencing pain. He recommends basically redoing everything Dr. Klein did. I wonder why Dr. Klein could not or did not want to see the abnormal findings on my reports that were so obvious to another provider. His recommendation to seek help from a pain specialist or to do traction left me feeling like a hypochondriac. I will not go back to see Dr. Klein which makes me feel bad since I had put so much trust into him for so many years and so many surgeries.

I like him !!! I found him to be caring and concerned about me and my problem. He was honest and up front about what problem I could still have after surgery, may need a leg brace and may not. I appreciated the fact that he could not guarantee I would not still have some nerve damage. He was very thorough in his explanation when answering my daughters questions about my condition.

I love Dr. Klein! I was diagnosed with a neurological condition in my late teens that required surgery. Dr. Klein was with me through every step. As my primary neurosurgeon, he took great interest in my rare case, and arranged for consulations with several other neurosurgeons. My case is very rare, and I was impressed with how proactive he was in getting as much insight and information as possible. He performed my surgery and I continued to see him for years for follow-up care. He is kind, funny, and marvelously eccentric! Because I was so young, I was very fearful of the operation and he really put my mind at ease. Hopefully, I will not need additional surgery in the future, but if I do, I'm certainly going to insist that Dr. Klein perform it.

Initally, I thought Dr. Kline was nice, but over the course of my treatment with him, I found him to be uncaring and a bit of a jerk. When Dr. Kline made the choice to operate on L4-L5 reherniation, he could not explain to me why he was willing, when the last doctor was not. I wish I had listened to my inner voice and gotten a third opinion. The disk re-hernated right after surgery and Dr. Kline's answer was to re-operate. Thirty-five minutes late, Dr. Kline looked at my MRI and said good news you're fine; until he realized he was looking at the wrong MRI.Embarassed, he found the correct MRI and within seconds said "yes you have another herniated disk, lets shedule you for a second surgery." I AM NOT KIDDING. He took no time to think over whether a a 2nd surgery was a good idea. And it seemed he barely glanced at the MRI when he came to this desicion. At the very least I expected him to offer me the pro's and con's of re-operating. I really felt like he just didn't care. I asked many… questions but he really offered me little information. When I scheduled for the 2nd surgery, there was a opening for the very next day. It made me wonder because what surgeon isn't booked out a few weeks. I ended up cancelling my surgery.