Rajeev Pandarinath, MD

I had an MPFL reconstruction with allograft and a surgical repair of meniscus tear with Dr. Rajeev. I am extremely satisfied with his professional care. I live by myself and had no family here to take care of me, but thanks to a great doctor and his secretary who were very responsive and helpful for all my questions, I managed the recovery very quickly.
I got injured playing basketball 14 years ago when my patella dislocated for the first time. Few months after the injury, the dislocation became recurrent and was hardly able to walk without having it at the proper place. I had a surgery in my home country, where the health system was not much reliable, with the best doctor there. At that time, they didn’t have adequate equipment for soft tissue surgeries. My patella kept on dislocating all these years and I learned how to live with it. Few months ago, I woke up with a pain that didn’t go away for days, when I decided to see Dr. Rajeev. He performed an MPFL reconstruction surgery with allograft on my knee and also a surgery for meniscus tear. I followed his advise for physical therapy and with his great professional care and prompt response, I beat the average recovery time for this surgery. I was able to lift my leg up on the 7^th day and started jogging on a treadmill when I entered the 11^th week after the surgery. My knee looks great and most importantly, I don’t feel like it will pop out!!!

After a devastating knee injury on the soccer field, I was referred to Dr. Pandarinath through a friend. His calm, direct, and knowledgable demeanor put me at ease as soon as he walked into the exam room. After speaking with him, I left knowing and understanding the plan and my options.
I am still recovering from surgery. but throughout the entire process I have felt comfortable and confident in my care.

I run marathons. I got injured. It happens. I went to see Dr. Pandarinath back when my knee pain first started in June 2012. He said it was nothing and prescribed an anti-​inflammatory and rest. I took about a month off before I started training again, with no issues. I was training for the Marine Corps Marathon, got up to 15 miles, headed out for my 18 mile run and my knee gave out completely. I went back to see the doctor and he diagnosed me with tendinitis, prescribed PT and rest.
I took 6 MONTHS off. I spent those 6 months in PT, following orders, doing exercises, etc. I saw him during a 3 month check up and he said I was making progress. When I was discharged from PT, I got the ok to start running again. For 3 months, I gradually built my running back up and got the ok to run a Half Marathon… the Nike Women’s Half. At Mile 8, my knee gave out.
I went to see a different doctor (Dr. Annunziata). He called for an MRI (something Dr. Pandarinath had never done) and diagnosed me with IT Band Syndrome… which has the complete opposite symptoms of tendinitis.
A runner with a knee injury and you don’t take an MRI? Even I questioned that. So, now it’s May, I’m almost a year out from an injury that typically has a 6 – 8 week recovery time, and I’m just now starting to recover because of his misdiagnosis.
Oh, and I would say his wait times were decent… except for that one time I waited for 90 minutes in his office and he never showed up.

Oh, and now I found out I’ve been sent to collections because he prescribed me a full price wrist brace. FOR AN ANKLE INJURY. I’ve spent hours on the phone trying to rectify this with insurance and credit reporting agencies. INEPT!

Perhaps 1 star is unfair, however, it’s the right rating for me. I received 2 cancellation responses while trying to schedule Dr. Pandarinath thru ZocDoc. His office eventually called to let me know that Dr. Pandarinath doesn’t see patients over 50 yrs. old for hip problems. OUCH. And the woman who called, with her oh-​so-​proper southern accent, seemed a bit put out that I didn’t know that. Honestly, this has never happened to me. I’m new to the DC area from CA — hope this isn’t a trend.

I originally went to see Dr. Pandarinath for a shoulder problem which was eventually resolved. However, I also had this persistent groin pain for 3 years and no doctor I had seen about it could figure out what was causing it. After I mentioned it to him, Dr. P was the first to suggest that it could be a sports hernia, which is very easy to misdiagnose and made sense given the symptoms I have had. He was very humble and said that although he is not a specialist in this area, he would be happy to recommend me to see someone else.
Although I saw some people in DC who said they treated sports hernia’s, none were specialists and there are only a handful in the entire nation with extensive experience. When I told Dr. Panadarinath that I no one could solve my problem and I was ready to give up, he recommended going out of state to one of the few sports hernia specialists in the nation. I went to see Dr. Mark Zoland in NYC, who examined me, diagnosed the sports hernia and did the surgery. It completely cured me and to this day I can’t believe how easy it was to fix and how lucky I was to run into an excellent doctor like Dr. Panadarinath who figured it out.
I don’t want to say anything bad about any of the other doctors I had seen for my groin pain, but many of them misdiagnosed my problems and some even recommended risky, unnecessary treatments, even after Dr. Pandarinath suggested it could be a sports hernia. I’m glad Dr. Pandarinath was able to point me in the right direction.
I recommend him highly.

Dr. Pandairnaht is an excellent and caring doc.
A friend who had seen Dr. Pandarinath for her shoulder pain recommended him to me as my shoulder was injured and was getting worse. Dr. Pandarinath has an excellent bedside manner and is conservative in his approach. He takes time to explain things and answer questions, which I very much appreciate. He let me know what he thought was going on, and recommended a cortisone shot. While I obtained some immediate relief, it didn’t last. I saw him again several months later, and as I didn’t improve, he ordered an MRI which ruled out a rotator cuff tear. While I was expecting him to recommend surgery, he instead recommended another shot of an anti-​inflammatory (not cortisone) and some PT. Again, some immediate relief but it didn’t last. After a couple more months, I went back and it was only then that he recommended an operation, suspecting that there might be some sort of calcium deposit in my shoulder that was causing my pain. He also recommended a biceps tenodesis to give greater stability to my biceps tendon and reduce the chance of pain from that. The operation was successful (and quick) and he found and removed the calcium deposit culprit that he suspected. Recovery at home was rather speedy, too (I religiously took pain meds every 6 hours and kept ice on it for three straight days). It did take about two months of PT (2 times a week at an office plus 3 – 4 times a week on my own) afterwards, but the physical therapist (who I chose on my own) repeatedly told me that the pain and symptoms I was having were normal for my type of surgery. And week by week, I got better. I’m happy to report that my shoulder is about 98% pain free now and the pain that I had before the surgery is gone. Just gone.
Would I do the surgery again? Yes. But only with Dr. Pandairnath. He’s excellent.

Dr. Pandarinath performed my ACL surgery a bit over a year ago. He’s conservative, knowledgable, and has a great bedside manner. He takes time to teach the residents, one of which referred to him as the ‘rockstar of knees’ when he wasn’t in the room. It’s true. My knee feels fantastic and I’m back to running half marathons.

Dr. Pandarinath performed an MPFL reconstruction to correct my chronically unstable kneecap. He spent plenty of time consulting with me beforehand to make sure it was the right decision. The surgery went great, coming out of anesthesia was surprisingly easy and they do a great job of pain control afterwards. My recovery has gone very well, too. One’s knee can become stiff and painful after a surgery like this if the ligament is attached too tightly, but I haven’t had that problem.
It has been a couple of months since the surgery and my knee is doing very well. I haven’t tested it in contact or competitive sports yet, so I am not sure how much the stability has improved, but so far I am happy with how it went.

I found Dr. Pandarinath through his Zocdoc profile page:
Which has many more useful reviews.
Very professional, very courteous, and very thorough. My ACL feels great, I rarely have any discomfort.