Not all surgeons are created equal. The way I find the best physicians is to first google hospital ranking for the specialty I'm interested in - like 'hospital ranking orthopedics', then I look at the website 'HEALTH.USNEWS'. That's a U.S. News & World Report website. Then I google the physician's name I'm interested in & again look at HEALTH.USNEWS'. What I'm interested in is where he did his training, especially where he did his 'clinical fellowships'. Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC is #1 in the nation for orthopedic surgeries, then there's Columbia NY Presbyterian, and there are other top hospitals for orthopedic surgery. The better ranking hospitals only offer better physicians an affiliation with their hospital. There are also top orthopedic hospitals in California & elsewhere. Once I asked a foot surgeon at HSS about whether the foot surgery I needed was something that any foot surgeon could do, and his reply was "the better surgeons have very few surprises either during or after the surgery and even bad surgeons can have a successful surgery". As far as revision surgeries, they require a higher skill level than the first surgery.