Jeffrey Kliman, MD

We had the best experience with Dr. Kliman, we had him perform 2 surgeries, one for my 4 yr old sons trigger finger and another one, my husband’s ACL reconstruction. He was the most skilled surgeon, he had so much patience, when he explained the procedure to us, pre-​surgery, during consultation he sat patiently and explained everything in deep details. Thanks to his advice, my 5yr old’s finger is completely cured, and the best part is, minimal cuts or scars, In cas of my husband’s surgery, there was more damage inside, than expected, in his knee, and Dr, took extra 45 mins but made sure, he is properly fixed and corrected. I will highly recommended him. The patience, and time he gives to the each patient, is a added plus, besides his excellent skills as a surgeon.

I am a retired physician and am careful whom I trust taking care of me. Dr. Kliman gets the highest rank possible. He is thoughtful, careful, and exceedingly skillful. I have seen some doctors who seem to function with the philosophy of «I have a hammer and you must be a nail.» Dr. Kliman (who knows my body, unfortunately inside and out, top to bottom) functions on the «what can I do to most efficiently and effectively treat this person before me. He takes time to educate me on what I might be doing to cause the problem, what non-​surgical options can help, and then we think together if any surgery is needed and under what conditions. That’s the kind of doc I can trust to do the right thing from start to finish.

Dr. Kliman has seen numerous members of my family for hip replacements, ankle surgeries, knee surgeries, etc. It was only a matter of time before I would need to see him myself. I took up the sport of triathlons over 2 years ago and after training and finishing my first Ironman late last fall of 2013, I had a pain in my right shoulder/​rotator cuff from the many hours in the pool swimming. Overuse injuries are very common in endurance sports. What I like about his advice for treatment was to be very conservative at first and to continue down a series of alternative treatments before he would even consider surgery. He is very thorough and because he has been doing this for some many years he may appear he’s moving very quickly but it’s because of his experience and expertise that allow him to point to a particular diagnosis and treatment plan. I highly recommend him!

I am giving Dr. Kliman three stars even though he did not perform any surgery on me. He gave me a reduced price and I was in desperate need to see a doctor about my foot. However, I don’t feel like he was really listening to my concerns. Nice? Yes. Pleasant? I guess. I am way more concerned with the right doctor than bedside manner, but it got on my nerves that he felt I just wanted surgery to look better (my feet). Not true at all! I have horrible foot pain and an array of foot issues, and I don’t feel he was truly listening to my concerns, worries, etc.

After reading the positive reviews, I went to Dr Kliman for help with significant arm pains, losing muscle strength. He asked a few questions and recommended a cortisone shot. I asked if I could have an X-​ray or MRI to verify the root cause, but he said that it would not show anything and that cortisone was the only option. I agreed to the cortisone shot (my first ever) and he told me to stay off of it. It felt better for a while, but when the cortisone wore off it was even worse than before.
I returned about four months after the first visit with extremely severe pain. I couldn’t move my wrist without pain. My arm would not straighten. With my arm extended, I could not pick up anything. even a pencil. Dr. Kliman told me that I needed another cortisone shot, and did not want to run any tests or MRI’s. He wanted to do two cortisone shots before considering surgery.
The cortisone wore off the second time, and my arm was not back to normal. I went to another very well respected doctor, who, without input from me, ordered a 3M high resolution MRI. The result showed that Dr. Kliman’s diagnosis was incorrect, and I should never have been given a cortisone shot for my condition. I am hoping that it can still heal correctly at this point, but it is questionable.
I realize there are many positive reviews for Dr Kliman, which is why I originally went to him. However, I would recommend requesting verification of the condition prior to any cortisone shot or procedure. It could prevent long term pain and chronic conditions. If he refuses to run the diagnostic tests as he did with me, I would recommend seeing one of the other highly qualified doctors in the area.

Dr. Kliman is brilliant, but his approach and style may not be for everybody.
I have yet to walk into his exam room and see him take longer than about 5 minutes to determine a highly specific diagnosis. While his approach may seem overly casual, he’s just so experienced from years and years of surgery that he can run a limb through a few range of motion tests and just KNOW what’s wrong because he’s seen it so many times before.
He’s chaperoned me through a number of minor orthopedic issues, always taking the most conservative approach possible. That means he recommends surgery only when nonsurgical interventions have failed or simply won’t work.
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t do surgery, or doesn’t do it well. After months of increasingly excruciating knee pain, Dr. Kliman diagnosed and trimmed back a torn meniscus in my right knee several years ago. I was up and walking around within an hour after the surgery, and off crutches after just a couple of days. He knows his stuff.
His schedule is often crowded and his office frequently runs late, but his expertise is more than worth it, as is his ability and willingness to go into as much detail as you need to make you comfortable with diagnosis and proposed treatment.

Dr. Kliman gave me my life back, after years of hip pain, I am now pain free, with a new hip. I must say Jeffery is the best the west has to offer.
I can say this, even if I lived in Istanbul, I would travel to see him and no other.
I owe him a debt of gratitude, that I will never be able to repay.
Thanks Dr. Kliman

You may have to wait a bit as others have said, but it is worth the wait. He is friendly, and knowledgeable, and explains everything to you as detailed as you want, but in understandable terms. He is also honest. I was going to get an x-​ray when I was considering surgery on my knee, when I decided to go with a brace instead. I asked when he wanted to get the x-​ray. He said don’t get it, its a waste of money for you you and insurance unless you were getting the surgery, he could have easily just taken my money, but didn’t.

I visited Dr. Kliman’s office for chronic hip pain. I was hoping to obtain information on the source of the pain and how best to treat the pain. Dr. Kliman is obviously very knowledgeable and experienced, but he appeared to have little patience for my low impact issue. He told me to take Advil. He might be right, and that’s all I can do, but I think his exam focused too little on muscular pain I described to him. Now I will go to a different doctor in hopes to get more attention and an MRI so my pain can ideally be solved instead of managed.

Great surgeon. He did knee replacement surgery for my mom few years ago and he just did a toe fracture surgery for my son. Highly recommend him. Great personality and very capable.

My partner has had both of her hips replaced by Dr. Kliman with the anterior approach with Dr. Kliman. We found him after much searching throughout the state of California… he is knowledgeable, confidant, considerate and most important truthful. On our first visit my partner asked when it was time to have the surgery– his answer– only she knew the answer to that question. We grilled him with our 100 questions– he answered all of them with ease. The appointment lasted 45 minutes (sorry to those in the waiting room) with no appointment for surgery we left with a plan for us to call when my partners pain reached a point that impacted her quality of life. 6 months I sat in the El Camino Hospital waiting room waiting for Dr. Kliman. She came out with less pain then she went in! Maybe we waited a little too long? Either way the hip has been great and she had 3 pain free years– until the last 12 months when the 2^nd hip started to whine… and it was an easy choice. Dr Kliman was on speed dial. When you choose your doctor remember– you are 50% of the relationship. Go to the appointment educated and prepared. Ask questions and above all DO THE PHYSICAL THERAPY!!!

Dr. Kliman performed ACL replacement surgery in my knee. Recovery was fast and I am very satisfied with his surgical skills. In office visits, he takes his time with each patient. I appreciate that he doesn’t rush me out the door, but be prepared to wait up to 90 minutes past your appointment time.
I did have a problem when I tried to return to activity after the standard recovery time, damaging the graft. He emphasized time and time again that I be careful with it, but that recommendation would have been best supported by insisting that a physical therapist (PT) clear me for activity. My PT emphasized a phased reintroduction to activity after evaluating my strength through a series of tests.
If you aren’t 100% consistant with PT exercises (who is?), make sure you have a plan for returning to activity. The biggest danger is in the missing muscle control, which would normally serve to protect your joints from damage.

Our family has known Dr. Kliman for 10 years and he has treated each of us for various conditions, from knees to shoulders, to achilles. Kliman is a pro and his diagnosis and treatments have been spot on. He is also a friendly and very fun guy! The office has a clean, professional feel to it and the staff are just great. Dr. Kliman rocks!

I find Kliman’s delivery when explaining procedures to be pretty entertaining. He’s an interesting fellow. I had an Xray and MRI done at his place and everyone in the office was cool — friendly people… I’ll be having surgery with Kliman this friday, I’ll be sure to write another review when the drugs wear off. Or maybe i’ll write a review while i’m high, that’ll be fun.

yeah i will agree with the other reviewer about the wait time, you are often seen almost an hour to an hour and a half after your scheduled appointment time, but thats all the bad i have to say about Dr. Kliman.
He is a super nice, super knowledgeable doctor who performed 3 surgeries on me, all related to sports injury. im back up and running these days and its all thanks to dr. kliman.
he spends as much time with you as you need, which probably would explain the lateness as the day goes on, he just keeps getting backed up. i would recommend him without reservation.

I fractured a bone in my foot when I was on vacation a while ago. The ER doctors fixed me up and told me that when I came home I’d need to find a local Orthopedic doctor to make sure everything was healing up properly. I had 3 office visits with Dr. Kliman (i chose him based on a recommendation).
He’s probably a skilled doctor but the way he interacts with patients could definitely use some improvement. I think a broken foot is probably the most boring and straightforward injury someone would go to an Orthopedic Doctor for, or at least that’s the sense I got from this guy. He knows what he’s talking about but his manner was not very helpful and he spent very little actual time (maybe 10 minutes each visit, and that’s including time taking and waiting for x-​rays) and seemed rushed when answering my questions.
Also, every time I went there I had to spend around 45 minutes in the waiting room so scheduling doesn’t seem to be organized well in his office.
I wouldn’t rate a doctor badly just based on his manner and wait time (especially for a specialist) and my foot healed up just fine. I guess that adds up to 3 stars.