Nicholas A Abidi, MD

Dr Abidi is a world class orthopedic surgeon.
We are blessed to have such a talented surgeon in the Santa Cruz area.
Dr Abidi just performed a total hip and a toe fusion on me. He did a great job. I had little to no pain for each procedure.
I have worked in the medical field for 38 years and have worked in the area of surgery most of that time. Skills like Dr Abidi are hard to come by.
I highly recommend both Dr Abidi as well his staff for all orthopedic procedures.

Dr abidi has helped me with my ankle which has been a complicated ongoing issue. He has been very thorough and even ordered a MRI when he wasn’t satisfied with the X-​ray results. Which we were glad he did cause it showed what the problem was. He even went above and beyond and helped me get seen by a specialist for a autoimmune issue I had been dealing with and getting no where with my gastrointerologist. His physicians assistant is helpful too and it seems like they both care about your issues and getting you better. I do agree with some of the other posts that often the wait times to see him are pretty long but to me it’s worth it to see a dr with his skills and knowledge. You only get one body and I would wait all day to know that I was receiving the best care available. I usually bring a iPad or my phone and the waiting goes by quick

Dr. Abidi and Clay are the best. I use the Campbell office and yes they are very busy but that is to be expected with all the ortho’s that make up the practice. Dr. Abidi took one look at my x-​rays and off to surgery we went, his bedside manner is very factual and he lays it all out there so you can make educated decisions. He is very kind, and does not speak «doctor talk» to his patient, treats you with lots of compassion. Clay provides great care and attention to detail. Rounding out the team is Ray — another jewel and very knowledgeable. The front office staff is kind, a bit overworked and in tight quarters, but they maintain a great deal of professionalism in light of the chaos that is going on in the waiting room — always a smile and friendly. Longest I have waited for a appointment is 20 minutes — not bad

I had multiple leg and knee injuries, and was happy that Dr Ravalin in Monterey handled my knee surgery. But with lingering calf/​ankle issues he referred me to Dr Abidi, considered by other doctors in the area to be the «ankle guy». It’s very busy at the Ortho Nor Cal office and both times I waited an hour and overheard people checking in for Dr Abidi with the same appointment times, so he seems purposefully overbooked. However, he was EXCELLENT, did an xray and ultrasound in office on my first visit, and ordered an MRI at my request so we could really see and document the damaged area. And he recommended I see another specialist for vein issues (Dr Shaheen of Mountain View and Monterey) — something Dr Ravalin wasn’t catching, but Dr Abidi did and in fact Dr Shaheen confirmed when he did his vascular ultrasound on me. I really wished I had seen Dr Abidi months earlier — I think I would have gained months of diagnosis and medical help. My physical therapy office also said they’ve heard good things about Dr Abidi and that they’ve seen alot of ankle replacement patients that seemed to do well with him too. If I have another injury, I would be happy to see him first and get his recommendations, he seems to be one of the best in the area.

I was told Dr. ABIDI. only sees patients once a week in San Jose on Tuesdays. I was scheduled as a new patient at 345 pm. When I walked into the office there were more than 20 people in the waiting area. I was given paperwork to fill out which took about 15 minutes to complete. 430 pm. Passed, at 445 pm. i asked the receptionist how much longer would it be. She asked the doctor and he said 15 more minutes which would make it 5 pm. At 515 pm. Which is 1.5 hrs. past my scheduled appointment time I again asked the receptionist how much longer and she apologized plus she told me there were still 2 patients ahead of me. Well if I would have waited I’d probably have to wait at least another hour. I told the receptionist I couldn’t wait any longer and I was quite annoyed. I rescheduled the appointment but I’ve decided to find a different foot surgeon. I found out from the staff that Dr Abidi. only practices a half day on Tuesdays and not a full day and double and triple books patients. So save yourself a long wait and see a doc that practices in San Jose only. This doctor is bad news. Doesn’t care how long he makes patients wait.

Worst doctor experience of my life, bar none! I went to see Dr. Abidi for extreme pain in my forefoot. First off, my appointment was at 4:30 PM and he didn’t even see me until 6 PM! The staff was gone, there were no patients there and I was almost asleep I was so bored! What in heaven’s name was he doing?
Finally he came barging in and claimed off the bat that the MRI disc of my foot that I had brought in had «crashed» his computer and he couldn’t read it. Then he demanded that I go back to the MRI place and get a new disc. So he didn’t take an x-​ray or look at my MRI but felt my foot and declared that my foot was permanently ruined and that he needed to do surgery right away to fix it. I asked him if I’d ever be able to do exercise, like running again and he said absolutely not, that my days of exercise were over. Then he allowed as how «he’d never been asked that question by a patient before». Really? And he calls himself a sports medicine doctor? How would he never be asked that before?
So without seeing an MRI or and x-​ray, he declared that he needed to do surgery on my foot right away and determined that the reason I had this problem was that my «calves were too tight». So he told me he needed to cut my calf muscle, which would disfigure the leg… and that he would cut the calf muscle on the other leg, which would disfigure that leg… to MATCH. NO, I AM NOT JOKING! He told me I needed to go back to the MRI place, order a new disc and make another appointment with him. And I assume waste another hour and half of my life waiting for my appointment.
So I went home, popped the MRI disc into my computer, and it worked perfectly fine. A couple of the images took a few seconds to load but that does not constitute «crashing» a computer. The MRI disc was perfectly fine, there was NOTHING wrong with it. He can’t even read an MRI?
So I went to a podiatrist, who performed the surgery perfectly and I am back to running and doing all kinds of high impact exercise that Dr. Abidi swore I would never be able to do. Thank heavens I didn’t go this guy first, I would have been not only unable to workout for the rest of my life but my legs would be permanently disfigured for nothing! I went back and told my referring doctor who was beyond horrified, apologized to me over and over and swore he would never, ever refer anyone to Dr. Abidi again!

Dr. Abidi spends one half day a week in San Jose and he overbooks his patients in order to get them all in that half day. I went to see him because I had a swollen achilles tendon.
I got in after waiting over an hour. My ankle was x rayed and he told me that the tendon was torn! He immediately scheduled me for surgery right after my vacation. At that visit I was fitted for a large boot which I wore to Hawaii. When I got back I went to the SOAR Clinic for a second opinion. Dr. Olaf ordered an MRI of my ankle which showed no tears at all! I was given two non surgical options for treatment. I took a wait and see approach and physical therapy which is helping me. No boot and no surgery needed. That’s the last Dr. Abidi will hear from me.

Worst Dr. Experience I have ever had. Fist off plan on waiting an hour plus in the waiting room. I went in with a painful arthritic ankle and after surgery I am a cripple. His only sugestion is to have an ankle fusion, the very procedure that I was trying to avoid. I have since gone to Dr. Olof at SORS and have had some pain relief with minor procedures. The word on dr abidi is that he signs his name with a knife.

Worst experience of my life! I’m going to contact Unilocal and request the use of negative stars for the description of this snake-​oil selling narcissist. By all accounts surgery is a forgone conclusion when dealing with Napolean Abidi, so don’t expect anything helpful that doesn’t involve a full-​blown surgical procedure. Likewise, the attitude seems to be universally reported by anyone who’s ever dealt with him as is the unbelievable tardiness– I’ve waited over 3 hours for an appointment that was triple booked. After taking time off work and driving to SJ I sat in the waiting room and commiserated with two other patients who had the same appointment time. I have no idea how long they ended up waiting but I was the first of the three called.
The moment I scheduled surgery (against my better judgement, something I kick myself over every day with my good foot) his attitude went from bad to worse. He was hours late for the surgery (I was the first patient of the day so figure that one out) and never even spoke to the three family members who waited patiently in the lobby. Until my first follow-​up appointment I had no idea what procedure he even did! He then essentially called my family liars by saying that there was no one in the waiting room. I was livid but kept my cool until the infections started. I ended up switching doctors and having to treat MRSA twice with hard-​core antibiotics that I’ve never even heard of. On top of that, I got to go to the wound clinic for two months and have the scab scraped off weekly. After almost 10 months the scar still isn’t fully healed and I’ve been experiencing side effects due to the antibiotics.
I’m not even mentioning the part where he left confidential patient information (including social security numbers, addresses, and medical details) in front of me and walked out of the office for 15 minutes. Or the fact that he told me to take anti-​histamines for pain, never ordered the wheel chair thing that he promised, and told me, and I quote: «if you don’t like the way I do things you can see someone else,» when I called him on these issues. I took him up on that offer but just found out that I’m now unable to see anyone else in that office as he’s put some sort of note in my file banning me from the office. So not only did he screw up my ankle, but he’s keeping me from seeing Dr. Reynolds who did an excellent job treating my shoulder, out of spite. Hippocrates would be so proud.

I have had nothing but good experiences with Dr. Abidi. Yes — his office is a busy place, but that’s because he is in high demand. I broke my ankle 13 years ago when I lived in Boston, MA. the surgeon that repaired it used a technique developed by Dr. Abidi and many doctors on the East Coast told me I may have to have my ankle fused. Fortunately I did not need it fused (yet)
Fortunately my ankle healed well enough to allow me to carry on with my normal activity (running, hiking, biking, etc.). Until about a year ago. When a bone spur stopped me dead in my tracks. It was really painful to run and walk on so I found Dr. Abidi. He removed 2 screwed that I still had in my ankle from the original surgery and removed the bone spur and my ankle has never felt better.
I will admit that he does talk quickly, but I like that in a surgeon. I talk fast as well. He’s always answered my questions, though in some cases I’ll admit you need to know the questions to ask to get the information.
I have not had any issue making appointments or scheduling surgery. I have had to wait in the waiting room some, but again — he’s a busy guy and only has just so many days in the office’s to actually see patients. He does need to actually be in surgery sometimes…
I’m still seeing him to try and get a bit more dorsiflexion back that I lost from the original surgery, but the surgery that he performed so I’ll update as I have more information/​experiences with him.
More reviews here:

My son was the ER patient
After reading Janet G’s review I realized from the date of 3−5−12 that my son’s surgery is the reason that her appointment was cancelled that day.
My son fell off the monkey bars at school and I was called by the school and told that I needed to come right away because they thought he had broken his arm. My husband and I rushed him over to Dominican’s ER where we waited 1 hour before an x-​ray was taken and another hour before a Dr. saw him. Once the ER Dr. looked at him the mood suddenly changed and I knew that something was seriously wrong, we were not going to get a cast and go home. We found out that our son’s arm was broken, his elbow was dislocated, and he no longer had a pulse in his wrist. He was fearful that an artery had been severed in his arm. The ER Dr. called Dr. Abidi and he cancelled his day to rush over and perform emergency surgery on my son’s right arm. My son was also pushed in front of 4 other scheduled surgeries because if they did not act immediately my 9 year old boy was going to lose his right arm. You can imagine the agony my husband and I were in while we waited to hear the outcome of the surgery.
Fortunately, the surgery went well and my son still has his arm. The break was quite severe, he had to have 3 pins put in his arm and he has a huge scar. Dr. Abidi also did an excellent job of re-​aligning the bones perfectly.
Once the dust had settled I did think about the poor people who had been scheduled to see him that day and how inconvenienced they would be. I know that if it had been me, I would have felt very put out. But, I wanted to assure you that there was a good reason for the cancellation, and I will be forever grateful to Dr. Abidi for dropping everything to help my son.

My 68-​yr-​old brother had a hip replacement by Dr. Abidi and was back to playing tennis, etc. after healing. Dr. Abidi also repaired my 90-​yr-​old mother’s both hip fractures. It’s true that his office is busy so the wait time is sometimes a bit long, and he speaks very quickly. His PAs or assistants seem competant. The fact that he has several offices results in limited availability in any one location. I don’t have other orthopedists to compare him with, but based on the above successful results, I believe Dr. Abidi knows his stuff. The arbitration agreement is probably not that unusual in this day and age of lawsuits.

Dr Abidi is knowledgeable, smart, inquisitive and wants to help, the makings of a good doctor in my book. I have very complicated (and still not definatively diagnosed) foot problems, but Dr Abidi has come closer to anyone in identifying the problem. He admitted that without doing surgery he could not know for sure what was going on, and because of that was hesitant to cut me open– he didn’t want to make things worse. However, he did NOT (as many others have done) pretend to know what is going on with my feet, give me a misdiagnosis 0r pretend my problem would be easily solved with orthodics. Modern medicine is not perfect, and doctors don’t know everything. He speaks technically and quickly, so be prepared with questions if you have them. I waited a very reasonable time in his office, his staff was efficient. Even though he hasn’t solved my problem, I send people to see him.

I was refered to this snake of a doctor by my then internist. The appointment ran 30 minutes, 25 of which were spent by this guy telling me how great he was. I was being seen for a non-​diabetic ulcer on my foot which he barely looked at and then prescribed a totally inappropriate orthopedic appliance, which I returned to the vendor, telling him to stick it up Abide’s ass. I am refusing to pay his bill, he can sue me, threaten me, or whatever, he isn’t going to get a penny.

I waited 3 weeks for my appointment to see Dr. Abidi, for a painful foot/​ankle ligament tear. I drove an hour from my residence to his office, and after checking in was promptly told that he had left the office to go to the ER, that I could wait for an unspecified amount of time, or come back the next week. My schedule permitted neither, so I left, upset. A patient waiting for another doctor who observed this came out of the office to tell me to avoid Dr. Abidi, because she had had a similar experience with him, had had surgery with him while an ER patient that did not go well for her. She was at the office to see a different doctor in an adjoining clinic. I cannot vouch for any of that, but I do know that doctors generally schedule their ER time when they are not seeing patients, and that Dr. Abidi only sees patients 2 days a week. Leaving a new patient stranded to go attend to an ER walk-​in, suggests to me that this doctor is trolling for more surgery candidates.
The office was jammed full of people, it was difficult to park, and the entire place had the air of a surgery factory. I should have known that this was not the place for me, when I was told that there was an arbitration agreement that I had to fill out before I would be treated, and that it was a required form for treatment. The agreement mandated that you waive your right to sue for malpractice, and instead go to a hearing that is usually run by professionals who get paid by the very people that are being sued. I have no plans on being involved in lawsuits, but I have never been given that agreement as a required form, only optional. Further, although all new patient forms are available online, and required to be filled out [wasting another 45 minutes of my valuable time] there is no mention of THAT form online for new patients. It seems somewhat underhanded to confront a new patient with a demand to waive their right to sue for malpractice, when all other policies and forms are provided online for review ahead of time. When it is so imperative at the outset of the relationship, and before any serious treatment is even contemplated, it suggests that the doctor expects to be sued as a matter of course.
I was inconvenienced by this experience, but believe after this entire experience, relieved that I found out before I let him operate on me.

I had an appointment scheduled this afternoon with Dr. Abidi.
Before he would even examine me, his office personnel handed me an arbitration agreement, which in my mind is a big red flag.
Why on earth would any competent doctor immediately request I give up my rights before even an initial examination?
Due to numerous other negative reviews, (on other sites) I will not be using his services. I would recommend that others who are referred to him look elsewhere for a doctor who is a bit less concerned about covering his behind.
Update:
I had my surgery performed by Dr. Kenneth Hunt at Stanford Foot and Ankle clinic. No attitude, NO arbitration agreements, no muss, no fuss, AND excellent results!
As I guess I was the first to review this guy, and after reading all the other reviews, boy am I happy I gave Dr. Abidi a pass.
If I could give him one 10^th of a star, that would be about right…