Mount Sinai Pain Management

"Dr Serben is the pain God. Had sciatica so bad in 2014. I'd rather have had a few toothaches and been in labor than that horrible pain. I couldn't even sleep in my bed Slept in my recliner when I could sleep. Went to a few pain Dr's with no relief. Then my pcp referred me to Dr Serben. Been b pain free. He did an epidural HE got the right spot. Excellent at his profession. Will not do or give any treatment or medication that isn't good for your issue. The Best at Mt Sinai"

"Kanzer, Daniel MD Mount Sinai Pain Management Program an extraordinarily gifted doctor and someone possessed of the kind of empathy that is so rare (and so great) to find in someone as young as he... Dr. Daniel Kanzer, by virtue of his thoroughness, has quite possibly saved me from life in a wheelchair... taking over as my pain management doctor after my primary care physician of 30 years retired late year before last. we met each month and on one visit early last spring, he asked if my pain was worse and i said.."about the same, i think.." and he said, "well, your body language says something else, so lets get an MRI of your back, just to see... the MRI showed a problem and Dr. Kanzer insisted that i see my neurosurgeon (the same doctor who performed a laminectomy and a multi-level fusion on my lumbar spine 11 years ago) ASAP ... i did and was told that i had severe stenosis which had caused the buckling of my cauda equina nerve root, something that would require a major operation in order to avoid the almost inevitable eventuality of becoming permanently crippled by the severing of my spinal cord... i had the operation 5 months ago and was informed by both my surgeon and the attending physician from the spine center at NYU that it would be an intense experience with a long and unavoidably painful period of rehab that might take a year or more to heal...(they inserted two 15-inch steel rods from my sacrum to my mid-thorasic spine, replacing the extant apparatus in the process). Daniel has been with me throughout this ordeal, making certain that my pain has never been more than i can handle and , for this, i will be eternally grateful... i spent two months at in-house rehab and am now finishing my third month of out patient sessions...we have lowered the dose of pain meds from the extremely high level, i was on, for the first couple of months, post-op...back to the maintenance dose i was taking pre-op. Dr. K has closely monitored my progress and with great compassion (and a marvelous sense of humor) helping me to "maintain the strain" In Conclusion, i give Dr. Kanzer and the Mount Sinai Pain Management Program my highest, unqualified recommendation for anyone suffering from the unrelenting pain of any severe back problem... Thanks again , Doc...I am so very happy that my current PrimaryCarePhysician (who retired into private practice after years as chief cardiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital) recommended that i apply to your program...! sincerely...your patient (and friend), david charles teschendorf NY, NY March 2024"

"Dr. Serban is a great pain doctor, dare I say the best in NYC without actually having been to each and every one of them myself. While he's prudent, he's always suggesting new approaches to deal with my pain issues. He's willing to discuss new approaches and dissuade me from any treatment if he thinks it's unsuitable for me. He cares deeply about this patient and I'm sure it's true of all his patients. Importantly to me, I haven't found a doctor in NYC who is better at treating Adhesive Arachnoiditis (AA), the source of my particularly vicious form of pain. A doctor both skilled at, and willing to even attempt to treat AA is a rare find even in a place as big as NYC. To find someone like Dr. Serban who both wants to and is very good at treating AA and is very compassionate on top of it all, is a very rare combination indeed. As is probably the case with all Five Star doctors, getting an appointment with Dr. Serban, even rescheduling an appointment, may result in a very long wait. There is no getting around the fact that Dr. Serban is in very high demand and we all want to be treated as if we're his most important patient. This is where the Practice's scheduling person's telephone skills make or break its reputation, and to some degree the doctor's too. If a patient can't be made to feel special by getting the best appointment in the book, then shouldn't the bad news be delivered in such a way as to make that patient feel like he/she is still valued by the doctor and Practice. More often than not the message either doesn't get sent at all, or gets sent in a way that makes the patient feel even worse."