Michael E Abel MD FACS

Dr. Abel has been my mother’s GI Doctor for the last few years. Dr. Abel performed my mother’s colonoscopy in 2014, during which he reassured my mother that she was fine and free of any suspicious activities in her colon. Exactly one year later, my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer with metastasis to her liver. The colon cancer that my mother has is a slow growing type, and it takes about 4 – 5 years to become a stage 4. However, Dr. Abel had missed my mother’s cancer during her colonoscopy procedure in 2014. My mother’s prognosis is very poor now. She undergoes a very intense chemo treatment which makes her sick and miserable, still there is not much hope… We’ve never heard any apologies from Dr. Abel or any acknowledgement of his mistake. I strongly advise to stay away from this doctor if you want to stay healthy and alive.

I can’t comment on his skill, but his bedside manner is pretty brutal. I was referred to him to have a sebaceous cyst removed from my abdomen. My primary care doctor had drained it, and I’m not good with pain: she had to give me lots of Lidocaine, and I walked around for the next few days with my hand cupped over it so it wouldn’t get bumped. So I was pretty nervous about having it removed.
Dr Abel yanked out the gauze that my doctor had packed into the wound, grabbed some hydrogen peroxide, sloshed it over me, and dabbed roughly inside the wound with a cotton wool ball. It was agony. I was gasping and writhing with pain and he didn’t care; he got some cotton swabs and went in there to scrape stuff out. He just kept saying «You’re OK, you’re OK». No, I’m clearly not OK!
Then he said he wouldn’t be removing it, and I was to keep it clean myself with hydrogen peroxide and come back in three weeks. When I said I could barely look at it, let alone keep it clean, he laughed at me. Then he told me to sit up so I wouldn’t faint, and walked from the room, leaving me to find my way out, in shock and in tears.
They were running 45 minutes late, so I wonder if I was rushed through. At any rate, I’m not impressed. I do acknowledge that I’m a pussy, that plenty of people excise their own cysts without anaesthetic, and that I have to get over myself and clean the thing; but some CARE would have been nice.

Dr. Abel is my hero. Seriously, I hero-​worship him; I completely trust and admire him as a professional, and I also enjoy his humour and his quick wit. My primary care doctor sent me to him to get my ultrasound results in the hope that I would agree to the gallbladder surgery I’ve been avoiding for many years, but when I told Dr. Abel I wasn’t enthusiastic about it, he said, «Well, then you shouldn’t have it… the prognosis for people who don’t want to have surgery isn’t as good as for people who do it whole-​heartedly.» I went home and thought long and hard, and realised that his attitude reminded me of doctors in Europe (he’s European and so am I), where the concern is to do a good job, rather than the U.S., which seems to be motivated largely by profit. So I called him the next day and made an appointment — and it all went perfectly. The people here complaining about his personality don’t realise what a resource he is — none of the smooth reassurance and schmoozing of U.S. doctors, just a straight-​up, highly experienced, workmanlike approach to the body and its mechanics.

Does Michael Abel know what he’s doing? Yes. Is he chatty and welcoming? Definitely. Will he babysit you into a 5-min.-everyday-procedure (~3 million cases per year in the US alone)? No.
I came in with a thrombosed external hemorrhoid of «significant size», and I asked him to remove it. Of course, I researched the hemorrhoidectomy specifics beforehand, and I strongly suggest that you do the same. I had no illusions about the procedure and its aftermath, only hopes.
Dr, Abel does his job quickly & painlessly. He gave me the choice of waiting 3 – 4 weeks to let nature do its thing, with a good chance that the hemorrhoid will secede eventually, or have him cut it out, right away. I told him to cut it out and that’s what he did. Nothing more, and nothing less.
He gives you an injection that numbs you well down there and the whole thing is over before you know it. Sure, the bloody needle stings like hell (but that’s no doctor’s fault, is it), but after that, you won’t feel a thing.
THE WORST part is that he doesn’t do stitches. Go with a doctor who stitches your wound. It is so much less painful and less bloody. Trust me. Without stitches, you will regret this surgery for 6 weeks. With stitches, only for a day or two.
In terms of aftercare, he doesn’t really tell you anything, that much is true.
Here are some real-​life aftercare tips:
Wear a pad (you know that thing that looks like a small diaper –PMS supply isle)
Make sure to pump yourself with some painkiller, e.g. 800mg ibuprofen, right after surgery. Once the anesthesia secedes, the pain is breathtaking, have no illusions.
Have someone drive you home. Lie down on the backseats. There is no way on earth you will be able to sit and drive in traffic with that pain.
The pain will not completely go away, even with painkillers. They wound will sting as the tissue is repairing. Lying on your belly, or on the side, watching TV and eating gummy bears will appease you until you fall asleep. This pain will remain for about 4 – 6 hours.
The first day is a little better, pain-​wise, but you will be reluctant to move. Slow steps and little action is possible, but if you are the single mom/​dad or ²⁴⁄₇ business type of person… forget it. Make sure somebody takes care of you, I would say, at the very minimum the next 48 hours.
After 36 hours you will feel progress. The frequency of the stinging will have reduced from every second to once in 5 – 10 min. After two days, it is actually already tolerable (seldom stinging). From now on, it will just feel like a wound and you can probably already stop the ibuprofen.
Bleeding from time to time, but only a few drops. In the mornings, it will look like PMS, that’s all. No biggy. Make sure you have enough pads to switch them out.
The toilet. I know it’s a big fear. I eat fiber supplements, and it really helps. So, as a suggestion, start eating that stuff a day or so prior to your surgery. You can buy those fiber enriched gummies they make for kids. 2.5g per gummy. Eat two before you go to sleep, that’ll do.
Let it come out. It will hurt a little as the wound is stretched, and the water in the bowl will turn red. It will be light red on the surface, but as soon as it sinks down, it will turn dark red. That is no reason for concern. In water, even a few drops look like you are bleeding out. You are not. In the course of it, you will probably lose about 20 drops of blood, and that’s it. As soon as you get up, it will stop. Make sure to have some toilet paper ready so it doesn’t drop on your floor, etc.
I always took a shower right after, simply because I didn’t want to wipe down there, not even with wet toilet paper. Cleaning it with some water and soap is much easier. After the bowl movement, you will feel some pressure. If you really can’t handle pain well, take 400mg of ibuprofen prior to your business.
The bleeding stops after a week. I took off work 3 days, plus the weekend, and I can say that was the minimum for me before I could go back to work. So, if you plan on having your surgery on Thursday, and be back to work on Monday, I’d say that is not going to happen. But then again, maybe you are a vampire and heal faster. But three days sounds a little like a stretch. After 10 days I felt almost healthy again. 2 weeks and you’re all set.
I had a hemorrhoid removed in Germany about 6 years ago and they used a laser to remove it. My recovery time back then was about two days. Very little pain. I don’t know if that’s a thing here in the Bay Area, but if you really want to cut it short and experience a lot less discomfort, find a doctor who has a laser. Compared to that, the scalpel feels mid-​evil, I know, but it was also only about ~$ 383 (that’s the charge they submit) so I think that’s more than fair.
2 stars for being stuck in the 20^th century.

I too had a horrible experience with Mr. Abel. He’s dishonest, unethical, and unaccountable. My guess us there’d be many more bad reviews here if it weren’t for the private nature of this subject.
Mr. Abel removed a hemorrhoid, and it was by far the worse and unnecessarily painful experience I’ve ever had. He assured me the procedure would be a quick and easy, that I’d be able to drive back to work, and it’d heal in 3 days. That’s all the info he offered. I had to pry with questions to get any information re: the procedure, its aftermath, expectations, post-​care and pain management, etc.
When I asked about post-​pain he said take aspirin «if» there’s pain. When I asked if I’d need to take stool softener he said, «if you want to». When I asked if there’d be bleeding he said, «maybe a little streaking.» Boy was that all a lie. I asked for a moment of privacy to phone my boyfriend about this decision; he didn’t wait even 60 seconds before barging back into my room to rush me.
Unfortunately, I moved forward with the procedure because he was referred by my incredible OBGYN and I trusted her judgment. This decision I fully regret and will have to deal with the rest of my life, as he left my body permanently damaged.
The procedure and recovery was a nightmare: After the Novocain shot, I felt horrible shrieking pain when he cut into me with his scalpel– not waiting even 10 seconds for the medicine to take effect. When the Novocain wore off later, the pain started. I could not sit, had to leave work/​be driven home, and could only lie on my stomach. I missed the following 3 days of work.
My body was constipated for 2 days from the trauma. When I finally had a bowel movement, the pain was EXCRUCIATING. I bled a lot from the wound being torn open. This was far beyond a little streaking, as Mr. Abel put it. The pain was so unbearable I became nauseous and faint, dropped to the bathroom floor into fetal position and couldn’t move for 20 minutes. I experienced this episode of severe pain during every bowel movement for the next 3 days. The bleeding and discomfort continued on for 7 days.
The way he conducted the procedure, and his complete lack of honesty was incredibly irresponsible and negligent. I can’t believe a medical professional can get away with this despicable way of treating people. I trust karma will catch up with him.

He carefully and thoroughly identifies a problem. He explains issues clearly. He welcomes questions. He is knowledgable and patient. For me, a complicated surgery was completed flawlessly. He called to follow up and welcomed me to call if I had any post-​surgery fear or concerns, no matter how small. Dr. Abel saved my life. And he saved the life of a friend who fought prostate cancer. While in the hospital, I made friends with another of Dr. Abel’s patients. A year later, she and I meet for lunches in wine country to toast the blessing of a skilled surgeon.

Sigmoidoscopy. Lying on the exam table in his office, fully exposed. Never had one before. I ask Doctor Abel ‘how long is the scope’, he kind of chuckles and throws a out a length in centimeters, then starts the procedure. I didn’t have time to ‘do the math’. The procedure feels like getting punched hard in the gut — from inside. I don’t know if he could have been gentler or not but it felt like he pushed it up till it hit the spot where the colon turns, — hard. I don’t know if that caused any injury, but it felt like it did.
I believe as patients we are entitled to give informed consent. I asked a simple and pertinent question during a very vulnerable moment — and got an ‘inside joke’ in response. I felt violated. It’s been over 10 years but I haven’t forgotten.
Thank you Unilocal for letting me get this off my chest.

With tears in my eyes i write this. I truly feel he saved my life.
Medical professionals were talking about about major surgery to remove a large part of my intestines due to complications with my Crohns disease. I would have more than likely ended up with a colostomy and other issues. Dr. Abel did everything he could to avoid that including flying back from the east coast to personally do my surgery. My gi doc later told me other surgeons would have just started cutting in order to cover their butt in case I were to become more ill later on down the road; just remove the problem. I ended up keeping all of my intestines and am now in complete remission.
I’m forever grateful. Everytime he would come into my room during my month long stay I felt an overwhelming sense of trust. He gave me hope when I was at my lowest point in life. I could never begin to thank him enough.

I met with Dr Abel and could not have been more impressed. I felt very relaxed and not at all rushed. He has a very sober and serious demeanor — which is exactly what you hope of the man who may be cutting you open for surgery at some point. As it turned out the hospital that had seen me 5 days prior had completely misdiagnosed me with an inguinal hernia. Dr. Abel was very thorough and addressed all my concerns. If need be I would certainly see him again!

Last fall I required laparoscopic hernia repair on my left side. Dr Abel and his staff were great. They exhibited a high-​level of professionalism, but were also caring and respectful. I had no significant complications during or after the surgery and am very happy with my decision to go through with the surgery. All healed now and back to enjoying an active lifestyle. Thanks again!

This isn’t a review of Dr Abel, this is a review of his front desk person. When I made the appt she failed to tell me that I had a copay. When I arrived and she told me this I said «just send me a bill», her reply was «if we send you a bill we’re going to charge you more» — seriously, you’re gonna charge me more to just send me a piece of paper??? she then proceeded to explain to me what a coayment was. Frustrated I pulled out my Discover and she said «oh, we don’t take that», so i pulled out my amex and again «ohhh we dont take that, we only take mastercard and visa». as i pulled my visa out I realized that this was probably a bad omen and I should probably just cut my losses and leave, which i did. And as I was walking out the door the receptionist called out after me «wait, I can just send a bill to your house».
I’m sure Dr Abel is nice, but the receptionist is a moron. There are other surgeons in San Francisco.

Dr. Abel is one of a kind– the best! He is compassionate and very knowledgeable and I am pleased he did my recent surgery. He is a good communicator and had great bedside manner. In the operating room he squeezed my hand gently as the anesthesia was being started. He definately makes you feel like you are in competant hands and I most assuredly was! I highly recommend you have a consult with him.
Also, his office staff at both of his locations were very pleasant. Everything runs right on time and while I had to be rescheduled at a follow-​up appointment once, it was because he was running late in a surgery. The surgery center also had very nice staff, both at the front desk and the nurses!

Dr. Abel is best of the best. He’s highly professional and very caring person. I was referred to him for a surgery and he walked me step by step through the procedure and recovery process. After surgery, he visited me twice a day and was always supportive and encouraging. He always personally called me to advise me on the test results and assure that everything is normal. I wish every doctor would work and live to these high standards.

Dr. Abel is the most dishonest medical doctor and human being I have met in my life. I went to him in 2010 for diverticulitis and the surgery did not go well. After the surgery I had incredible pain that continues to this day. It took 4 visits to his office to even get a ct scan done where a leak and abscess was seen radio-​logically at the surgical site 10 days after the surgery. He denied it was there saying the radiologist was overly thorough. He went into full on cover up mode at the expense of my life. All of my other treating physicians suggested a new surgery but could not believe the lack of followup care I had received. Dr Abel promulgated the suggestion that I was exaggerating the pain. About a year later after being on vicodin and antibiotics for a year an abscess was discovered at UCSF in the colon. However it has been difficult to find another doctor to fix this mans mistakes. So I continue to live in a high degree of pain taking antibiotics and pain killers.
Dr Abel looks like such a skilled doctor but he is overly busy. His confidence masks a lack of real concern. With the limited time he spends with you he simply does not listen. His listening skills are just absent. On followup visits in the hospital or what were supposed to be followup evaluations he never even set foot inside the room to talk to me or examine me– he said hello from the hallway and then was gone.
Beware– if something goes wrong that is where Dr. Abel turns and runs. He will not help you if you get into trouble after one of his surgeries. He will in fact avoid looking for problems in followup. Also remember this is a teaching hospital and it is not unusual for them to slip in a resident to do your surgery without any notice whatsoever.

I had hemorrhoids that wouldn’t go away after childbirth. My OBGYN referred me to Dr. Abel and I set up an appointment to have them removed surgically.
I was very disappointed with Dr. Abel and his office staff.
Office Staff — A bit *too* efficient?
The office staff called two days before my scheduled surgery to change my appointment time asking that I now check in for surgery at 6am instead of 7am. I did not get the message until after my work day and the next morning (day before surgery), the surgery center called me to inform me of my new appt. time at 6am. I called Dr. Abel’s office and said, «What? Do I need to change the date of this appointment? I have set up transportation and childcare and can’t change at this late date…»
Dr. Abel — Not setting realistic expectations…
I am a working mom with a lot of responsibilities so I wanted to know what to prepare for if I had this surgery… Dr. Abel said, «You will have the surgery on Thursday and be back at work on Monday…» Well, it is now nearly two weeks since the surgery and I will tell you this — childbirth was a cake walk compared to the pain I have felt last two weeks. I will recommend to anyone NEVER to have hemmorhoids removed unless absolutely necessary. Excruciating… Dr. Abel did not set expectations well at all and it had a big impact on my work/​home life post-​op…
Dr. Abel — Lacking in bedside manner…
Since I was little, I have had low blood pressure and on rare occasion a «vagal» response to needles/​drugs whereby my heart rate drops dramatically, I break into a cold sweat, yawn uncontrollably… it’s like my body is shutting down. Well, morning of surgery I had a «vagal» response after the nurse on the third try successfully got my IV in place. Hadn’t happened in quite a long time, but I immediately said to her, «Look, I need to lie down, my head needs to be down… just help me out of this chair and let me lie on the floor.» I guess lying on the floor is not hospital policy so she put me on a guerney, hooked me up with oxygen and I was feeling better almost immediately. Dr. Abel arrives and is clearly perturbed because his surgery with me is now running late. He had the audacity to call me a «drama queen» as he wheeled me in for my surgery. Nice bedside manner, Dr. Abel…

I can’t believe I am seeing favorable reviews of this doctor!
INSENSITIVE AND INSULTING would be the two words I would use to describe this doctor!
I am a healthy and fit woman in my 30’s and After giving birth to my third child I had to deal with the left behind friends… ahem…hemorrhoids.I went to Dr Abel in a significant amount of pain. I explained to him that I had a 6 month old as well as two other children, 3 and 5. He told me that I had a thrombosis and it may eventually go away on it’s own or her could easily remove it there in his office. I went with the latter unfortunately without all of the pertinent information. After the «procedure» he said you should be fine in a day but to not lift anything over 10 pounds for a week… I went home and was kind of in shock at how painful it was and had to call and ask about post surgery care of the wound as well as pain management. I can’t believe they didn’t give me a post-​op instruction and had to call for it! I was in excruciating pain for a week! When I went in for the follow up, I asked what I could do about preventing this in the future, he response with a smirk on his face «don’t have any more children. start living a healthy lifestyle. and don’t read on the toilet.» WTF

My mom had stage 3 colon cancer from southern California. I flew her up to cpmc hospital and Dr. Abel treated her colon cancer. Its been 5 years and she cancer free today because of Dr. Abel. He saved my mom. Great Doc and awesome staff!

It’s nice to meet a doctor who gives me his undivided attention and doesn’t rush the examination. I was very impressed with his bed side manner. I think he is an amazing doctor. I am glad my primary physician referred me to him. I’m hoping he will be able to figure out the problem I am having and will have some answers. Trust me, I’ve dealt with many physcians in my time, Dr. Abel is the whole package. I truly know this man is looking out for my best interest and I know I’m on good hands. God bless him.

It’s not everyday you see 5 stars across the board on Unilocal.I must agree with my fellow Unilocalers that Dr. Abel is a very skilled surgeon and his bedside manner is just great. Very comforting and professional, and he has a sense of humor too!
After being diagnosed with appendicitis, I was informed I would need to go in for surgery right away for an appendectomy. I was totally nervous and it was all happening so fast. Dr. Abel came in and introduced himself, explaining his credentials, the procedure and that the incisions would be so small that I wouldn’t see them when they healed (I was nervous about having a big scar). He was genuine and friendly and I could just tell I was in good hands.
The whole procedure only took about half an hour. I am now in recovery and everything is healing just fine. He also gave me a photograph of my appendix to take home :)

I would have to concur with the first review, and add that Dr. Abel is also a highly skilled surgeon. After enduring almost a year of pain (under a different doctors care) I was referred to his office. Dr. Abel determined that I needed to have a surgery and within weeks I was pain free and back to feeling myself. Eventually, I needed to have a second surgery which was a bit more invasive. Long story short, is that I was happy with the outcome. He has an excellent patient manner and his staff is top notch.
A word of advice to anyone who is enduring pain. Don’t wait, get early treatment, and work with Dr. Abel. It just may save your life.