Docs in Minnesota ? - do we know these people ?

[tony]

Good morning
An NF2 stateside is considering treatment from the following
"Dr. Levine and a Dr. Haines- from the University of Minnesota"
Does anyone know anything about them - or had treatment from them ?
pease advise
tony

[macintosh]

Dr. Levine has a website titled "Acoustic Neuroma: The Basic Facts" that is heavily biased against radiosurgery. If your friend is consulting with Levine, I would suggest that he or she should also get at least one other opinion from someone who does radiosurgery.

[rebarman]

The poster Obita, lists them as the Dr's that did her surgery. Drop her a line, I'm sure she will be able to give you some info on them. She's a wonderful AN friend that has a great deal of support and information for AN'ers.

[Obita]

Hi Tony -

Denise and I both had Drs. Levine and Haines as our surgeons.  They are tops in our book.  At the time of my surgery three eyars ago they had done over 500 AN resections and as of July, they were over 800.

Dr. Levine's site "The Basic Facts" is very old.  I have called him on it and they are working on revisions right now.

Dr. Levine and Dr. Haines never swayed me to surgery.  They did offer up a radiation referral.  My AN was borderline for radiation so I opted for surgery.

Denise and I cannot say enough good things about these doctors or our care at the University of Minnesota.  They are the best at what they do and they have great personalities to boot.

Feel free to write to me Tony or tell your stateside friend he/she can do the same.

Kathy

[Denise]

Tony,

I LOVE Dr. Levine and Dr. Haines, but mostly Dr. Levine.  They both have great bedside manner, great reputations, and much experience with AN's. They have been performing AN surgery together since 1985,  and I would recommend them both 100%.

I agree with Kathy (obita) that the website you are referring to, is old.  Dr. Levine talked to me about radiosurgery options along with my surgery options.   I don't think he was pushy in anyway, and he did not talk poorly about radiosurgery. Thats the treatment I wanted, unfortunately,   I was not a candidate due to the size of my tumor.   I found them both to be open, and informative. 

I have no complaints, even with my not so perfect outcome, which is due to my tumor size and how it was on my nerves, not a reflection on my drs.   (my tumor was emeshed in my facial nerve like speghetti, and I had a blood vessel which was feeding it, and helping the little sucker grow).  At time of my initial MRI tumor was 3.8 cm (4/5/05), at time of removal my tumor was 4+ cm (5/9/05).

I too would welcome any emails or questions from your stateside friend.

Denise

[macintosh]

I am glad to hear that Dr. Levine’s practice is more up to date than his website. Unfortunately, that website is the first one that comes up if you Google “acoustic neuroma,� and it has undoubtedly misled a lot of people. It was the first thing I read when I was diagnosed, and it left me very depressed until I found my way to other, more reliable sources.

I hope this website will be coming down soon. It should have come down a lot sooner. In fact, they should take it down NOW and stop misleading people. If they know it’s wrong, there’s no reason to leave it up there while they work on revisions.

[Denise]

macintosh,  i am sorry you feel you were mislead by Dr. Levine's website.  You should let his office know how you feel.

DS

[tony]

Thank you everyone for your contributions
I have now passed them on - we will see what comes back
best regards
tony