About the Practice

Welcome! At a time when medicine is increasingly dominated by large impersonal clinic settings, it’s our goal here to provide private and comprehensive care with individual attention to your problems. We define comprehensive care as:

1. Focus on correct diagnosis above all else, seeing the problem in the perspective of your overall health and needs.
2. Explanation of the problem and treatment options in plain English, staying abreast of the best and least invasive treatment choices while avoiding bias for one over any other.
3. Providing follow-up until the problem is resolved (not just performing a procedure and leaving your care to physical therapists).
4. Providing safe and effective management of your musculoskeletal pain as long for as you have it.
5. Helping you benefit from your improved function and pain relief by guiding you in the process of taking care of your spine and limbs through stretching and strengthening.

Education of the patient about their problem has always been the role of the healer, not just performing procedures or prescribing medications. Experience has shown that the best results in the treatment of problems of the musculoskeletal system involve a partnership between the physician and patient. Our responsibility is to diagnose, to inform you of our findings, and to try and offer you the best treatment for your problem. What we ask of you is a factual description of your difficulty and a desire to learn and participate in your care. All patients in this practice are treated equally and with dignity, regardless of financial or celebrity status. Despite the demand, we will not schedule patient visits or surgeries at any level that precludes individual attention to your problem and explanation of the logic behind every treatment.

What Does an Orthopaedic Surgeon Do
(Hint: Surgery is the Least Important)

Problems with the musculoskeletal system are by far the most common type of pain and one of physician. Among all MDs, the orthopaedic surgeon is by far the most trained to diagnose and treat these issues. Unfortunately, many have come to believe that if you see an orthopaedic surgeon that it will lead to surgery; clearly a frightening introduction. How this came about is not the topic here. All patients in our practice are carefully diagnosed and the nature of the problem will be explained to you until you understand it and its probable natural history. Despite Dr. Nelligan’s experience with thousands of successful arthroscopic and reconstructive procedures, the majority of our patients do not undergo surgery. All of our patients learn about their body and the critical importance of flexibility, strength, and posture. Those who do require some surgical alteration of their anatomy are followed closely afterward to ensure that the more important goals of flexibility, strength, and posture are met.

Our Specialties

We will evaluate and counsel you about any problem you have with your limbs or spine. This includes the very best in diagnostic measures, discussion of the findings in plain and understandable terms, and choice of the least invasive treatment options. There is no bias in this practice toward arthroscopy (“sports medicine”) versus joint replacement (“adult reconstructive”) as is frequently seen in orthopaedic practices. Dr. Nelligan has extensive post-residency training and experience in both modalities. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery in both Orthopaedics and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine. He is also the developer of Sequoia Hospital’s Total Joint Restoration Program. Liza Reichenberger has over 12 years of experience in musculoskeletal care and pain relief. In addition, she is an internationally renowned professional bodybuilder, giving her a unique perspective on rehabilitating you from your injuries. We also have close referral relationships with some of California’s best spine, hand, children’s orthopaedic, and orthopaedic tumor specialists. The goal is to choose the best and safest means to reach the outcome that you and your caregiver agree upon once you are fully apprised of the diagnosis in understandable terms.