Dr. House / Dr. Hitselberger chosen as team --- any comments?

[bob_michigan]

In October 2005 "Distressed DB" asked the following:  "Has anyone had Dr. House for the surgery?  I have seen a lot of recommendations for Brackmann or Friedman (even Slattery), but none for Dr. House...  Can anyone give me a view?"

He was scheduled for a December 7 surgery with Dr. House and Dr. Schwartz which is the only reference that I can find in this message board of that team.

I understand that a person who gets surgery with a team of either  1) Dr. House and Dr. Hitselberger ... or ... 2) Dr. House and Dr. Schwartz .... "can't go wrong" ... that either would be excellent.

The October 2005 posted message never got an answer. 

Please post comments.  How is the first team?  How is the second team? How is Dr. Schwartz? 

I have a degree of trust and comfort about either team, but I figured it doesn't hurt to maximize that comfort level by getting some pros and cons feedback posted.  If someone posts privately to me about this, let me know if I can post your input to the message board (without your name) ... or not.

Finally ... for those who recall my posts about getting radiation, GK or FSR, you now know my status is to get skull base surgery, FYI, after going to Johns Hopkins for FSR recommendation and having them tell me that my #1 consideration should be skull base surgery for my relatively large tumor.

Bob

[Battyp]

Bob how large is your tumor? 
No, I didn't get to experience the house experience..no time for me after diagnosis!

[vcschaub]

Of all the House Ear Clinic physicians, Dr. Brackmann and Dr. Hitselberger are the most experienced. They are all fine surgeons though. Dr. House is actually either the son or nephew of the original Dr. House, who passed away several years ago. Dr. Hitselberger and Dr. Schwartz are the two neurosurgeons. I was asked who I preferred and I went with Dr. Hitselberger because of his reputation and experience. Dr. Brackmann was the ENT surgeon. They were both so caring and warm

[bob_michigan]

--- I've added my signature block at the first post and below ... tumor is in the "large" category.

--- Thanks very much for the response about Brackmann and Hitselberger. 

--- Now I should make these observations:  Dr. Hitselberger is reported to have especially steady hands for his age of roughly 75 years.  I don't know if Dr. Brackmann is a similar age or not, but each of these physicians certainly have an extremely high amount of experience.  So a person would be in good hands from a maximum amount of experience / knowledge.

--- However, there are certainly good options at House and I wanted to confirm those good options.  My first contacts with House Ear Clinic have been with Dr. John House, who has been there for 33-34 years.  It was suggested to me an experienced neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins that a physician for acoustic neuroma surgeries should have done a
      minimum of 200-300 in their career and be doing a minimum 20-30 per year on-going each year. 
Consider that Dr. John House may have done
                    1000-2000 (?) or more (?) of these surgeries in his career with around 50 per year on-going surgeries
Consider that Dr. Marc Schwartz would have done
                     300-400 in the past 2 years alone with 150 to 200 surgeries per year on-going.

So that's why I am interested in seeing more comments in postings in this message forum about Dr. Marc Schwartz, the younger physician.  Obviously in the coming years more and more surgeries will be done by Dr. Schwartz, who has already had at least a minimum amount of experience.

So ... what about the House and Schwartz team?  And how is Dr. Schwartz?

Bob

[Jeff]

Hi Bob,

I may not be too helpful, but here's my take. I am a patient of Dr. Friedman's, and have had he and Dr. Hitselberger remove one of my AN's. They are great. I have no experience with Dr. House. I have had limited experience with Dr. Schwartz.  I have a tumor in my neck (I have NF2) that Dr. Schwartz is following. I have spoken with him only through email, and he has been very prompt in responding, and willing to take the time to answer my questions. I have spoken with patients while at St. Vincents/House/Seton Hall who had Dr. Schwartz as neurosurgeon, and they were all pleased with him. I hope you find the answers for which you are searching.

Best wishes,

Jeff

[bob_michigan]

Thanks very much for the posts about this topic.

I am now scheduleding to get a translab surgery at House Clinic by Dr. House and Dr. Hitselberger.

Reasoning for choices of doctors: 
--- Dr. Hitselberger is the most experienced neurosurgeon in the world regarding AN surgeries and I've seen quite a few positive comments about him.
--- Dr. House has been in practice for over 30 years at House Ear Clinic, I am very comfortable with Dr. House based on 1) what I have read on the House web site, 2) my telephone contacts with him and 3) patient input I have seen or heard to date.

It is still slightly mystifying to me that I do not recall one negative comment or even one concern of any kind about anything related to the clinic or the physicians or the medical center.  Maybe I simply forgot any of those kinds of comments/concerns that I saw or heard.  My tentative conclusion is that the following statements apply for many or most of the patients who go there:
--- The operation (that is, the combination of House Ear Clinic administrative staff, the physicians, St. Vincent Medical Center
                administration and staff) is nothing short of excellent, so the patients experience that excellence before
                and during their surgery, so they are happy customers.
--- The patients are above average in terms of both intelligence and maturity in terms of the following:
     --- they have done their homework about what their condition is and, when possible ... and probably with the
                assistance of a physician(s) ... they know in advance what the treatment needs to be, what the
                risks of complications are, and what the degrees of chance for certain outcomes are
                AND / OR --- the House / St. Vincent surgical team has provided some good education of explaining
                the potential complications and potential outcomes --- that the patients heard and understood
     --- they know that no organization is perfect, so they accept any minor problems in dealing with House Clinic
     --- they know that they are getting the lowest risk surgery due to the high level of experience and expertise,
                so they know that their outcomes are as best as they could have gotten anywhere in the world.
     --- they know that there is some degree of risk for potential complications no matter who does the operation;
                therefore, if something happens to them (they were in the "1%" group or "5%" group for a certain outcome),
                they accept it and move on with their lives
--- They fully appreciate what is apparently an outstanding operation(s) in terms of both the personnel and the facilities, as noted above.

ALL INPUTS APPRECIATED ----- I HAD STILL NOT SEEN MANY COMMENTS ABOUT DR. JOHN HOUSE, SO
ANY AND ALL INPUTS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED.  I AM JUST STARTING TO SEE AND HEAR A FEW
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS -- all positive.