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Neil Fine, MD, FACS
Chicago, Illinois, United States

Neil Fine, MD, FACS

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Dr. Neil Fine is a board-certified plastic surgeon at Northwestern Specialists in Plastic Surgery, located in Chicago, IL. He specializes in breast reconstruction and other aesthetic techniques, providing advanced and individualized treatment plans tailored to each patient's unique needs and aesthetic goals.

Dr. Fine's comprehensive approach ensures that every patient feels supported and informed throughout their surgical journey. He prioritizes patient education and clear communication, working closely with each patient to explain their options and help them make well-informed decisions about their care. His expertise includes cutting-edge plastic surgery techniques such as blepharoplasty, facial aesthetic procedures, liposuction, and reconstructive microvascular surgery.

Dr. Fine has received numerous awards for his work in plastic surgery and breast reconstruction, including being named one of Chicago's Top Doctors in plastic surgery by *Chicago* magazine and one of the Best Doctors in America in the category of breast reconstruction. He holds an academic appointment as a clinical associate professor in plastic surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

For more information about the services provided by Dr. Neil Fine at Northwestern Specialists in Plastic Surgery, please submit an enquiry.

Reviews (5)

Jacqui Shine
April 5, 2025
I have been through 3 years of treatments for two different cancers, and this was the single most humiliating and unpleasant encounter I’ve had with a physician in that time. Dr. Fine receives rave reviews for his care, compassion, attention, and kindness with breast cancer patients. I’m sure it’s all true, but I did not meet that person. It’s perfectly possible to deliver disappointing news to someone in a kind way, and I’m sure he has that skill. He just chose not to use it, instead leaving me crying in an exam room where he left without looking at me or even saying “goodbye,” though the medical student working with him did, once it was obvious he was not going to acknowledge me. By the end of the encounter, he was petulant and contemptuous, and nothing I said or did in the twenty minutes we spent together justified it. I am posting a review because he is part of a private physicians practice group and the hospital’s patient representative process cannot be used here. I came for a second opinion appointment for potential revision of scarring after mastectomy with flat closure at another hospital. Dr. Fine knew I was unhappy with the result and felt I had been treated poorly, and this made him angry for reasons I cannot understand. He made a point to tell me, in an increasingly loud voice, that it was a “GOOD RESULT” and he “couldn’t have done better and wouldn’t try,” which I simply don’t believe, not just because one of the surgeons on my original case said it was a poor result himself, but because other surgeons have agreed. Dr. Fine insinuated that a rather simple removal of “redundant tissue” would not work because I am fat. To prove this point, he showed me images of a patient—except they were photos of a patient who had a *completely different procedure* than I had had and was inquiring about, and they showed no physical features in alignment with what he was saying. He did not address in any way one of my chief concerns, even though I stated it very clearly multiple times—he simply did not respond to it. He and his PA seemed to think I did not “respect” them—both repeated that they’ve been “doing this a long time.” That’s true! But I am the breast cancer patient living with scarring I don’t like, and only I have knowledge of how I was treated by other doctors and what they said to me—expertise they do not have. It was hard not to feel that they were not interested in my case because it wasn’t a fancy flap surgery or a cosmetic surgery they could bill full freight for. Dr. Fine and Lexy did not like me or the way I check (or don’t check) their boxes for what women are supposed to want for our bodies. “I’m sorry you’re disappointed,” “I know this is hard to hear,” “I wish we could help you,” “I don’t agree with what your other doctors have told you,” “I see you’re upset”—any one of these really very anodyne phrases would have made this a better encounter for me. It was instead the most humiliating I have endured in three years of cancer diagnosis and treatment. I did nothing to deserve it.
Mary Wernicke
March 19, 2025
When I was diagnosed in November of 2021 with invasive lobular cancer of my right breast, I was fortunate enough to have doctors that were top rated. I would like to focus on the one doctor who helped me to feel WHOLE AGAIN, that would be DR. NEIL FINE and the awesome staff at NORTHWESTERN SPECIALISTS IN PLASTIC SURGERY. I was scheduled to have a nipple sparing double mastectomy with tissue expander reconstruction on January 3, 2022. The day before my surgery, I was informed from the breast cancer surgeons office that my surgery was canceled due to Covid spikes. The hospital was only allowing one breast cancer surgery per day, and I was told that mine was postponed until a later date. I was not happy about this, especially after I was mentally prepared. The next day I received a phone call not from the breast cancer surgeons office, but from Barb who is the scheduling coordinator at NSPS. She said that they received news that there’s an opening for surgery on January 5, and that she thought of me right away. Of course I said yes, book it! The cancer surgeon harvested 5 sentinel lymph nodes to be sent off for testing and Dr. Fine placed the expanders. As positive as I was that there would be a good outcome that my cancer would be contained…the reality was that cancer was found in 5/5 nodes. My 2nd surgery was to remove my axcillary nodes My right expander had shifted as I was healing between my surgeries. Dr. Fine wanted to go in and move it back into the pocket so he was able to tag along with the other surgeons in March. Unfortunately, the area that was around my expander didn’t look right and it had to be removed. Post surgery I began 4 months of chemo then 25 days of radiation. I then began taking Verzenio (a drug to help combat against metastatic cancer). As a side note…Verzenio has to be stopped 2 weeks before any surgery and resumed when healed. In January of 2023 I met again with Dr. Fine to see what type of reconstruction I was a a candidate for. Since I had radiation, a straight implant was out of the question. He suggested that a Latissimus Flap with tissue expander would be the best option for me. Due to my extensive time as a child on the monkey bars I was blessed with a large Latissimus muscle! That muscle is the mound that is now my breast. No expander required! If anything can happen it will happen to me… In May I developed an infection in the voided space of my back area where my Latissimus muscle was! Dr. Fine had to do an Incision and drainage of abscess cavity, (reopen my back to wash out that area) and stitch me up again! With more healing and another surgery in the future (to place an implant in my left breast side) knowing that taking Verzenio for a longer period of time was ultimately more important than reconstruction surgery Dr. Fine, Lexi and Monica were on board with delaying surgery until I healed. I was taken care of with compassion, kindness and empathy. Fast forward to January of 2024, I met with Dr.. Fine and scheduled my next surgery for April. The 5th surgery was a second stage reconstruction of the left breast with removal of tissue expander and placement of saline implant. Bilateral breast revision with lateral tissue excision on the left side and inferior and lateral tissue excision on the right side! Then in November of 2024, my 6th and final surgery was completed. Right breast revision with excision of lateral skin and fat grafting to recreate the lateral mammary fold. My breast reconstruction/revision journey has finally come to an end. The treatment that I received from the entire NSPS staff was superb. As far as Dr. Fine’s expertise, he is impeccable. I’m very pleased with my outcome. The very last treatment to be done at NSPS is having a 3-D nipple tattoo performed in the near future. After the tattoo is completed I will miss the entire staff! They stood by, and encouraged me throughout my entire cancer journey . Thank you again to Dr. Neil Fine, Lexy, Monica, Caroline, Kendal and of course Barb!
Virginia Hill
March 10, 2025
I visited Dr Fine and his team after a failed breast reconstruction after being treated for cancer with mastectomy, chemo and radiation. From the first visit, there were noticeable differences between my prior surgeon and him. He and his team are empathetic and make their patients feel at ease and cared for. At each visit, he and his team have spent a lot of time with me. The visits never feel rushed. At my first visit, he looked at my infected reconstructed breast with an exposed implant and calmly explained what was necessary to fix it. He then explained the procedure he thought would be helpful and showed me before and after pictures of patients who had undergone the suggested surgery. The end result was gorgeous, by the way, in all of these pictures---even in post radiation patients. In this visit alone, he spent more time with me than my prior surgeon had spent with me over multiple visits. He answered all my very detailed questions. In my first visit with my prior surgeon, before my mastectomy, my husband and I were left alone in an exam room for about an hour with a saline-filled implant and silicone-filled implant on the counter to look at. The surgeon I went to before spent about 20 minutes with me in that visit and did not go into detail. The choices presented to me were implant reconstruction with saline- or silicone-filled implants or an abdominal flap procedure that takes 2-4 months to recover from. I am very career-oriented and don't have 2 months to take off of work. Dr Fine, on the other hand, gave me the option of a latissimus dorsi flap with a significantly shorter recovery time, lower complication rate, and better aesthetic result. He gives you his honest opinion based on 30 years of experience. He tells you the hard truths: such as that 50% of implant reconstructions fail after radiation therapy. I wish I would have known that before I started on this journey because I would have made very different choices. The icing on the cake was when he took out the infected implant in his office, which makes a woman feel really terrible and ugly and scared, and his very kind PA told me I have beautiful eyes. Wow. What a caring team.
Jannah Candido
October 30, 2024
Mildred Jackson
August 9, 2024

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