Hi everyone-
I did a general search here for Dr. Damrose out of Stanford (Palo Alto, CA), but seem to come across more pages where folks were providing him as a recommendation or who just consulted with him… not a lot of folks who actually did the surgery with him.
Could someone point me in the direction of any posts (ideally more recent) of experiences with Damrose? Or even better, if anyone did their surgery with Damrose and is open to sharing their testimony.
Thank you in advance.
@SeekingInfo - Dr. Damrose is in & out of his practice due to his commitment to the US Navy so perhaps that has deterred some of our members who had a consult with him from continuing to surgery. As far as I recall, we’ve only had a couple of members who’ve had him do their IJV decompressions, & that was a couple of years ago, & neither have come back to share how they are doing.
We know that he was trained in doing IJV decompression surgeries by Dr. Hepworth, but we don’t know whether Dr. Damrose has gone on to develop his own version of the surgery, & if so, how effective it is. We do know that he’s a very experienced ENT skull based surgeon & has done successful ES surgeries w/o IJV decompression on a few of our members, but those were also some years ago.
As you’ll find out if you read many posts on this forum, it’s more common for our members to have to travel out of state to see an experienced surgeon than it is for them to find one close to home.
Do you know for sure that you have IJV compression? If so, & you don’t plan to proceed w/ Dr. Osborne, you could contact Dr. Nakaji in Scottsdale, AZ, or Dr. Hepworth in Denver, CO.
•Dr. Peter Nakaji, https://www.scottsdaleclinic.com
Scottsdale Neurosurgery Specialists - 602-313-7772
•Dr. Edward Hepworth, Denver Sinus Care, 3150 E 3rd Ave, Denver, CO 80206 (720) 899-9489, FAX (720) 953-5151, email: info@denversinuscare.com or for initial consults - kcurry@denversinuscare.com
I’m really sorry there isn’t much info about Dr. Damrose on our forum & hope that someone who has had surgery with him will reply to your question.
Thank you so much for the information.
I do not know for certain if I have compression and because I have a severe contrast dye allergy, I likely will never know for certain. I’m considering doing an MRA (sans gadolinium), but even then, I know it’s not entirely accurate. I do know based on my images that my styloids are very long and my c1 looks like it’s practically touching my styloid. With that said, I don’t have any symptoms of compression.
I’ve heard some positive things about Damrose on Facebook, so at the very least I hope to consult with him.
Thank you again!
It’s great news that you don’t have symptoms of compression! Dr. Damrose does to non-vascular styloidectomies as well so he’s a good doctor for you to see.
Hi there - I’ve consulted with several ENTs and Dr. Damrose was one of them. Unfortunately, I did not have a good experience. There’s a chance he’s a good surgeon but has poor bedside manner though.
TLDR - I traveled 7 hours to see him, just for him to immediately say I don’t have Eagle’s. He suggested I have spasmodic dysphonia (I don’t) and asked if I have proper mental health support. That was basically it. I felt incredibly insulted and like my time and money had been wasted.
Again, doesn’t mean he’s a bad surgeon but I wanted to share because I was shocked at how I was treated given how many 5 star reviews he has.
@Jess1 I have no experience with Dr. Damrose, but I do have years of experience with doctors like the one you just described. I’m glad you recognized it for what it was and don’t stop advocating for yourself.
It took me six years to finally get help, and I wish I had known at the beginning that I was dealing with dismissive doctors. It would have saved me a lot of time, money, and second-guessing.
@SeekingInfo - Have you had a consult with any other doctors regarding ES? I’m sorry I don’t remember if you’ve posted your imaging on the forum, but if not, we’d be happy to give you our non-medical, but very experienced opinions which you can then discuss w/ a knowledgeable ES surgeon. If you don’t want to post them on the public forum, you can send them to me via a PM.
I hope you get a chance to see Dr. Damrose if that’s who you want to start with, and hope that your experience with him is better than the one @Jess1 had.
@Jess1 - Have you had consult w/ any of the other ES surgeons on our Doctors List? If so, how did those consults go? I can’t remember if you’ve posted any of your CT images on the forum, but if not, we’d be happy to give our non-diagnostic but experienced opinions which provide good discussion information for any future consults you may have.
Thank you so much for the support. I was a little nervous to post my review but I wanted to share my honest experience in case it helps someone else.
I’ve had medical issues most of my life so I’m unfortunately experienced with doctors brushing me off and will move on to the next if I feel dismissed. But it’s exhausting…
We do hear all the time from members that they’ve seen lots of doctors and have been dismissed or gas lighted, it’s so hard to find the energy when you’re feeling ill to keep fighting 
I have! I’ve had consults with Dr. Damrose, Dr. Theresa Guo, Dr. Gerald Berke, Dr. Cognetti, and Dr. Nakaji (for IJV compression). I intended to post a full review once I figured out my treatment path but I’m still in limbo.
I did post images before but I didn’t get the best angles for looking at my styloids. Here’s my right and left, both unannotated and showing total length if including the calcification.
I have! I’ve seen Dr. Damrose, Dr. Guo, Dr. Berke, Dr. Cognetti, and Dr. Nakaji (several of these happened to line up really close to each other so I didn’t have much time to cancel in between).
I did post pictures but they weren’t the best angle of my styloids or the ligament. Here’s one of each side with a measurement from styloid base through the calcifications.
Thank you for reposting your images, @Jess1. You’ve been very thorough in getting opinions. I’m glad some of them aligned as it sometimes seems the more you get, the more the opinions vary & cause confusion as to what your next step should be.
I now recall you have significant IJV compression on the left side, & predominantly caused by C1. You also have ponticulus posticus/arcuate foramen on the left side of C1 (can’t remember if I mentioned that before). Out of curiosity, what did Drs. Nakaji & Cognetti say about your left IJV compression?
I think we’ve only had one member who’s had surgery done by Dr. Guo. We have a member who just had hyoid bone surgery done at UCLA, & Dr. Berke was her doctor, but it turned out he had a fellow do her surgery while he supervised. This info wasn’t given to her ahead of time & she wasn’t happy to learn about it post op. That’s just to say that when you go to a teaching hospital such as UCLA, Stanford, UCSD, & others, you need to confirm prior to surgery who will actually be doing the work on your body.
I hope you’re able to sort through the information you have + your experiences with the doctors you’ve interviewed & choose someone you felt comfortable with to do your surgery so you can begin moving forward to healing.
Thanks for taking a look again! You hadn’t mentioned that before but I’ll jot it down for my next neuro visit. Dr. Nakaji referred me to a general neuro he works with for his gray area patients and my consult is coming up!
At this point, I’m just confused; it’s unclear whether is a neuro issue (compression or a disorder), an autoimmune issue with atypical symptoms, or who knows what else.
@Jess1 - You clearly have IJV compression on your left side & w/ the symptoms you have, I think that is a significant contributor. Because your left styloid, in particular, is pretty thick plus a section of ligament below it is calcified, those could be causing some neuro symptoms as well. The right side has a similar situation w/ the calcified section of ligament below your styloid but the styloid isn’t as thick. Unfortunately w/ the sagittal views, we can’t see the angle of styloid growth as that can also play into the types of symptoms the styloids may cause.
I’m sorry I missed the ponticulus posticus the first time around. Glad it’s been seen now. That situation is sometimes not problematic but sometimes does cause nerve pain so it’s good you’re seeing a neuro doc for another opinion.
I hope the neuro appointment is helpful, let us know how you get on!
It’s so confusing because it seems most doctors don’t recognize the significance of IJV compression so i’m just stuck on a wild goose chase. Thanks for pointing out the actuate foramen; I’ll bring it up at my next neuro consult and see if they think that’s significant. Thank you for all the help you provide all of us on this forum!
