He grew up in Los Angeles and attended the University of California Los Angeles for his undergraduate studies. He joined the United States Navy and completed medical school at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Saldua served for 14 years in the United States Navy with duty stations that included General Medical Officer onboard USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) and Orthopedic Surgery Department Head of the NATO Multinational Medical Unit in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He completed a combined neurologic and orthopedic spine surgery fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to joining The Vancouver Clinic, he was an attending spine surgeon at Naval Medical Center San Diego. Dr. Saldua has authored several publications and book chapters on orthopedic surgery and spinal surgery.